A History Lost (DS9-Stargate Atlantis crossover)
by Dragon Cat84
Summary: I wrote this years ago but I've never completed it. I plan to complete it after I finish my Space Above and Beyond/nBSG crossover I just wanted to give a taste of what was to come. Most of all I hope you enjoy it. Feel free to leave any comments. I own neither Deep Space Nine or Stargate Atlantis I'm just having a little fun.
1. Chapter 1

A History Lost?

One

Prior to the Dominion War the USS Defiant NX-74205 (Defiant-class Escort), an United Federation of Planets Starship based at Federation/Bajoran space-station Deep Space Nine at the mouth of the Bajoran Wormhole in the Alpha Quadrant, was tasked with long range exploration/scouting missions into the Gamma Quadrant. These missions were generally long and uncomfortable especially on a ship as small as the Defiant it was designed for combat no exploration. Starfleet knew that this and that an Intrepid-class or Nova-class would be better suited to this type mission. Unfortunately because the Gamma Quadrant was dangerous, with the Dominion having eyes in most systems, Starfleet couldn't risk sending a general explorer-type vessel.

Relaxing on the Defiant was almost impossible mainly due to the cramped conditions so Captain Benjamin Lafayette Sisko often took to sitting on the bridge in the command chair, even when not needed as part of his duties, sometimes he'd just sit and listen to his crew work other times he'd deal with some of the paper work he needed to do for Deep Space Nine, the perfect escape from a long mission.

Often these missions yielded little to change Starfleet's impression of the Gamma Quadrant however one mission changed Earth's history, in a way no-one thought possible, and Starfleet's perception of the Galaxy and the universe. "Another long mission almost done, and what to answer for it? Sensor logs of a new rogue comet, two more races under the heel of the Dominion and a lot of aches and pains." Chief of Operations Miles O'Brien said from the engineering console at the front port side of the bridge, it was a light-hearted moan from the Irishman and the usual on the Defiant's bridge the staff were encouraged to voice opinions and let out their tension when there was nothing else happening.

"You forgot all the technical malfunctions and glitches you found Chief, another technical manual to write beckons." The Trill Helm/Science officer Lt. Jadzia Dax quipped, she sat almost leisurely at the Helm console just ahead of the main view screen as the Defiant travelled at warp towards the Wormhole, a less experienced eye may think that she was not interested in what was going on at her console, but Sisko knew her better than that. Jadzia was a joined Trill and so the Dax symbiont that shared her life had lived in several hosts experienced several lives, the Captain had known the previous host Curzon, a Federation diplomat, and he knew that the dedication to duty that Curzon and Jadzia shared ensured that Jadzia was fully concentrating on her work while enjoying the banter of the bridge.

"With this ship, I could write a dozen already Lieutenant." O'Brien shot back, when he retired he probably would write a dozen tech manuals, although the Chief wouldn't trade her with any other ship in the fleet. The Defiant was overpowered for her size and that cause the ship to be a handful to the Engineering team as well as any potential enemies. Even as he was speaking to Dax the Chief was tinkering with some of the Defiant's systems, Sisko had no idea what he was doing but no doubt it would improved the ship in some way. When Sisko had served at the Utopia Planetia Shipyards, in orbit of Mars, he had watched the Defiant grow from a keel to a starship, one designed to fight the Borg, however it was O'Brien and his engineers who had turned the Defiant into a ship that could serve Starfleet in a far broader duty.

"Captain, we're receiving a distress call" Major Kira Nerys, his Bajoran Executive Officer at communications officer said as always she was all business. "Sir, it's in English" she reported stunned, English was almost unheard of in the Gamma Quadrant and there were no missing Starfleet or Earth-registered craft in the Gamma Quadrant to Sisko's knowledge.

"Put it up" Captain Benjamin Sisko said, sitting on the central chair, now all business.

"It's in audio only" Kira said patching in the channel. The bridge's speakers crackled into life with a female voice coming over the bridge.

"This is Colonel Tanya Ward, commander of the Phoenix, to the attacking craft. We are from the planet Earth and are on a peaceful mission." The voice said over an explosion and after a few moments "…launch all fighters, bring the main weapons array online." Colonel was not a Starfleet rank. As far as Sisko knew the starship USS Phoenix was a light exploration craft missing in the Beta Quadrant half a Galaxy away. Around the bridge the crew looked totally stunned but not the Captain, who seemed to take it in his stride standing up from the central chair.

"Major, get a fix on that transmission. Dax, set a course maximum warp. Mr Worf" he said looking over at the Klingon Tactical Operations officer at the weapons console "Arm Quantum Torpedoes, Drop the Cloak and raise shields. We're going in!" He said defiantly, the command crew began immediately following his orders, although Sisko did not know who was in trouble he intended to find out and why they claimed to be from Earth. The Defiant transformed from being a cramped vessel not designed for its job to a Warship, the only real Warship in the Federation's Starfleet, ready for combat. "Bridge to sickbay, Doctor we have encountered a situation with possible casualties, possibly human, be prepared for anything. Have security standing by."

"Yes, sir" the English doctor said across the comm. without a single thought to ask why his patients would be human so far from Earth?

A few minutes past and the Defiant dropped out of Warp near the distress call the cloaking device, on loan from the Romulan Star Empire, was lowered it hid the ship but didn't provide any protection from weapons, instead the shields raised. "Report" Sisko ordered as the view screen zoomed in. On the screen Sisko could see three small bug-like purple Jem'Hadar Attack Ships that were circling and firing their weapons on an unidentified larger craft which appeared to be equipped with powerful shielding. The larger vessel was of a design and configuration he had never seen before with a long flat upper hull, with a command tower towards the rear, forward there was a slanted nose while along either side there was what appeared to be two shuttle bays in pods that were about half the length of the forward hull. The vessel was firing on the Jem'Hadar vessels with projectile and missile weapons, long abandoned by most space faring races humanity included.

"Sir, three Jem'Hadar Attack Ships attacking a single craft. Unknown classification, sensors are unable to penetrate its shields or hull. Defiantly the source of the distress call, the Jem'Hadar are currently jamming all communications." Kira reported basically what they were seeing. Looking at the unknown vessel firing at the Jem'Hadar craft Sisko could tell their weapons were having very little effect which was more than a little impressive.

"Sir, I'm also detecting several small two person craft, shuttle size, attacking one of the Jem'Hadar craft." Worf reported the view screen focused in a pair of fighters with grey hulls forward swept wings and a dual cockpit, the fighters were firing standard missiles and some sort of projectile weapon similar to the weapons being used by larger craft. "Their weapons are not being effective."

"Understood, Major break that jamming and give me a channel to the Jem'Hadar, Mr Worf target the Jem'Hadar but do not fire until I command." The Klingon nodded as did Kira, he had a channel. "Dominion vessels this is Captain Benjamin Sisko, commander of the USS Defiant. You are ordered to end your attacks or be fired upon." Sisko said drawing a line in the sand, within the Dominion Sisko and the Defiant were well known and respected adversaries. One of the Jem'Hadar Attack Ships broke off heading for the Defiant firing its Poloron Beams hitting the Defiant's port shields doing only light damage, the other two craft continued to circle and attack the craft known only as Phoenix.

Despite the bombardment from the two remaining vessels the unknown craft's shields continued to hold, a Starfleet explorer starship's shields would likely have failed from this amount of fire. "Dax, Attack Pattern Omega 3, target the ships attacking the Phoenix. Commander Worf, Quantum torpedoes at your discretion." Sisko ordered as was the case of his command, the officers with hands-on dealt with the problems and his orders, within moments the Defiant was moving quicker and rapidly changing its direction of travel.

As the Defiant manoeuvred into attack position nearer the two attacking Jem'Hadar craft the Phoenix lashed out with a pair of new weapons paired focused plasma beams. These beams struck out from the forward section of the Phoenix hitting the attacking Dominion craft on the amidships shielding. The Jem'Hadar's shields rippled with the hit, the craft changed its direction of travel with a new respect for the Phoenix's weapons. "Impressive" Worf grumbled, most Starfleet vessels would fail to have that kind of impact on the Jem'Hadar's thick shields.

The Defiant was not most Starfleet ships, however, Worf focussed on the undamaged Jem'Hadar craft first. From the forward launchers, set into the vessel's compact hul, four quantum torpedoes fired. The powerful matter/anti-matter torpedoes crossed the gap between the Defiant and the Jem'Hadar craft slamming into the Dominion vessel near the warp nacelle pylon on the port side. The resulting explosions tore the pylon apart sending the vessel into an uncontrollable spin before it exploded in a ball of flame.

As the Dominion lost one of their craft another was in position to attack the Defiant. Its Poloron beams struck out hitting the Defiant's aft shields, the whole ship rocked with the hit, though the Defiant carried heavy shields the kinetic energy from a hit was always felt throughout the vessel.

"Evasive pattern Epsilon 2" Sisko ordered, the Defiant dropped into a diving barrel-roll turning away from the Phoenix and other Dominion craft, the chasing Jem'Hadar craft followed firing its weapons again but missing by several kilometres. Dominion craft were generally less manoeuvrable than the Defiant in good hands and there were few better than Jadzia Dax, she piloted the craft like and extension of her own body, one of her previous hosts was an expert pilot and so was she.

The Phoenix continued to fire its paired Plasma Beams, adding the occasional Railgun volley and conventional missile strike beams while its eight fighter craft also made constant runs against the ship, the shields of the Jem'Hadar craft were almost constantly flaring with adding damage though it was not enough to knock the craft out of the battle it was keeping it busy and away from the Defiant.

"Mr Worf, aft torpedoes, fire!" Sisko ordered as the Defiant moved, Worf fired two more matter/anti-matter projectiles this time exiting via the centrally mounted rear torpedo launcher. The torpedoes flew true and slammed into the front of the Dominion craft overloading its shields leaving the hull exposed. "Mr Worf, one more time" Sisko said looking his auxiliary monitor "Fire!" he ordered the Klingon tactical officer fired another pair of torpedo the weapons flew from the rear tube. The torpedos hit the Jem'Hadar Attack Craft just behind the forward Poloron Beam emitters, the bug-like craft exploded moments later as the warp core detonated.

With both its companion craft destroyed the single remaining craft appeared to be interested in engaging the Defiant for a moment however it then turned lazily and jumped into warp speed escaping the battle scene. Normally the Jem'Hadar pressed an attack until they or their target were destroyed, why they had retreated would play on Sisko's mind for a while however for now he had a more worrying situation to worry about "Captain, the Phoenix is turning to face us, its weapons are still charged and targeted" Worf reported as the Defiant moved ahead of the vessel.

"Understood Commander, power down our weapons but keep the shields up for now. Let's see what is going on here?"


	2. Chapter 2

I've cleaned up part two so I'm going to post it now.

Two

Currently deep within Dominion territory, the Jem'Hadar had little to worry about; their Vorta supervisor, Natalya, was the only real source of trouble. The Vorta and the Jem'Hadar were the two primary races of the Dominion, outside of their leaders, the Founders. Both the Vorta and Jem'Hadar had been the results of extensive genetic manipulation: lines of clone advisors and supervisors, in the case of the Vorta, and entirely original creations bred specifically for combat-related duties, in the Jem'Hadar's case. Both species believed that the Founders were Gods; and both agreed that the Dominion had the right, and the obligation, to rule the entire galaxy everyone in the Gamma Quadrent feared them, everyone in the galaxy should feel the same way.

However, that fear they brought out in others was the end of any additional similarities between the two races; each considered the other as their greatest rivals, rather than their peers. The Vorta were the favoured of the Founders; but the Jem'Hadar were undeniably the fist of the Dominion, a crucial role to maintaining order.

Sitting in her quarters aboard the Jem'Hadar Attack Ship that she had chosen as her command vessel, Natalya relaxed, eating some of the fruit the Jem'Hadar had appropriated from a convoy travelling near Dominion space. It was a relatively heavily-armed convoy, travelling along the outer edge of Dominion territory; Natalya's orders had been to give them a message of warning, and she had completed her mission, not quite so diplomatically as others would have been, but the message was sent loud and clear. At the moment, she was enjoying the fruits of her labour, or rather, the fruits of the Jem'Hadar's labour. She laughed at that thought; the Jem'Hadar would always be the labourers of the Dominion; the trouble sorters, the expendable subordinates, the closed fist, while the Vorta was the keen minds that implemented the Founders' directives as necessary.

Then, without warning the ship shifted slightly as it executed a sudden course change, briefly overwhelming the ship's inertial dampening field. Something was wrong, she thought. Rising from her position, she headed for the command room, her two-tone dark and light purple dress flowing loosely behind her as she moved.

Entering the command centre, Natalya looked at her First, perhaps the largest and strongest, but certainly not the most intelligent Jem'Hadar she had yet to meet. He was currently standing at attention, looking through one of the eye-piece tactical displays the Dominion favoured rather than the wide, wall-mounted viewscreens favoured by most other races. Not even bothering to speak to the First, she picked up the second available eye-piece, and placed it over her head activating the screen.

"What exactly is this craft that I'm seeing?" she inquired, observing the long and wide, yet flat profile of the vessel on her display. It was a design she had never seen before, and it was located deep within Dominion territory... something was very wrong, indeed.

"Unknown, Vorta; it would appear to be from some unknown area of space, as it bears no discernible markings that we recognize."

"Intriguing, but a matter for another time; What are your orders concerning vessels encountered, not of Dominion origin?" Natalya asked, officially ensuring the First would carry out the Founders standing orders in clear view of his subordinates.

"Destruction," the First said, nodding to the other Jem'Hadar. "Obedience brings victory... and victory is life," they all intoned.

With that said, the crew proceeded to inform the other ships of their change in orders, and prepare their vessels for battle. Within seconds the attack group had dropped to sub-light speeds in clear view of the unknown target. Standard combat doctrine had the command vessel slightly behind the other two ships in formation, as all three opened fire with their forward phased polaron beams into the unknown craft. The ship's shields flickered by the hits but surprisingly, annoyingly, they held up under the assault.

"Continue the attack," the First ordered, ever-so-slightly impressed at the unknown vessel's shield strength, however, still determined to ensure their destruction.

"First, they are attempting to contact us," the Second reported, from an auxiliary monitor located behind the First and Natalya.

"I do not need to hear them, continue the attack," First replied dismissively, observing as the second barrage of polaron beams struck the target, yet still the unknown's shields held. The unidentified sip returned fire with what appeared to be archaic, low-velocity railguns and nuclear fission-armed missiles, neither weapon a credible threat to the Dominion vessels.

"On the contrary, First. Personally, I wouldn't mind hearing them out," Natalya overruled again showing the First who was in charge here. "Put their transmission up on the speakers, Second." The First looked somewhat angry as the speakers came to life.

"This is Colonel Tanya Ward, commanding officer of the United States Air Force vessel Phoenix from the planet Earth, to the attacking craft, cease fire." She commanded "we bear you no hostilities, and are on a re-supply mission only. Should you continue your attack you will face the full force of our weapons," a female voice replied.

"An Earth ship... a Federation vessel?" Natalya muttered quietly, thinking over the rather bold, if foolish reply. She thought she'd known about all current Earth ship designs; she was almost certain none of them carried such outdated weaponry, yet were also equipped such powerful shielding. There was something very wrong with this entire situation, not just the supposed Earth vessel, she supposed.

Following her moment of introspection, eight small shuttle-type craft launched from the starboard side of the Earth ship, all heading for Natalya's vessel. Fighter craft? What was the point, she wondered.

"There is something very wrong with this vessel, First..." Natalya whispered. However the First did not even bother to answer, though she was certain that he had heard her words. Jem'Hadar warriors were noted for their near perfect hearing, Natalya knew this was his way of resisting her trying to maintain his command.

"Continue the attack, ignore them," First ordered, the Jem'Hadar ships fired again striking the ships shields again as the small craft engaged, their current weaponry was inconsequential against the attack ships' shielding, only down some 5 percent at the very most. Then without warning, a new vessel entered the area, behind the attack group.

"First, the Defiant has entered the system," Second reported, with was an edge to his voice. All Jem'Hadar knew of the USS Defiant, with many of their number secretly desiring to cross the gateway and annihilate the vessel responsible for many ships destroyed, avenging those Jem'Hadar its crew had killed in battle. "They are hailing us," the Second continued, not waiting to be ordered to display the transmission.

"Dominion vessels, this is Captain Benjamin Sisko, commander of the USS Defiant. Cease your attacks or be fired upon." Not only was the Defiant present, but also Captain Benjamin Sisko as well, Quite an impressive commanding officer, for a mere human, was the shared thought among the senior personnel.

"Divert AV-437 to intercept the Defiant," the First ordered, just as the unidentified ship engaged them some kind of powerful beam weapon, the Vorta - Natalya - nearly fell over as the ship shook violently. It would appear that this vessel might actually have some fangs to bear, the First thought, suppressing the rather odd urge to smile. "Continue the bombardment of the unknown target. Order AV-536 to ram that ship if necessary," he ordered, intending to destroy this new ship if it was the last action the First undertook.

"We have not brought down their shields as of yet, there is no reason to believe that plan will guarantee success," Natalya warned the First; she did not want his single-mindedness to duty destroying their entire attack group... including her.

"The directives of the Founders are paramount, we must destroy them," he said dismissively. Several additional seconds passed with two Jem'Hadar attack ships circling and continuing to fire at the unidentified craft, while the third Jem'Hadar ship moved to intercept the Defiant. The Defiant's relatively impressive shielding and quantum torpedoes quickly dealt with AV-437.

"Quite true, First, but not at the loss of potentially vital information. We must survive this battle to inform the Dominion of this new vessel, this possible new threat," Natalya urged, making it clear that she did not want the First to sacrifice their remaining Jem'Hadar in this single fight. The Jem'Hadar Attack Ship shook violently once more as the unidentified craft again opened fire with its beam weaponry, apparently plasma of all things-based overwhelming the inertial dampening field yet again.

"Have AV-536 intercept the Defiant as well - ram them, should they have the opportunity," The First ordered. "Transfer all available power to weapons and prepare to board the unidentified craft, rotate transporters as needed."

AV-536 and the Defiant began to manoeuvre against the other, each moving away from their current positions, leaving the command vessel to engage the unidentified craft alone. The weapons fired again striking the unidentified craft and the craft returned fire with its primary beam weapons, railguns and nuclear missiles; the shields of the Jem'Hadar Attack Craft were beginning to show some strain under the strikes, although this vessel's auxiliary weaponry were less than effective against their shields, against the ship's hull they could cause the Jem'Hadar vessel heavy damage, possibly crippling.

Several things interested Natalya about this unknown ship, the Phoenix.

First, it appeared to be an entirely human-crewed vessel, according to the life signs registered on their scanners, and also from Earth, but seemingly not part of the Federation, which was both unusual and unlikely, at the very least.

Second, its method of faster-than-light travel was like nothing she had ever witnessed; appearing seemingly out of nowhere, remaining undetected until it emerged from whatever from of FTL propulsion they employed, according to the sensor records, which she had reviewed over the course of the battle.

Thirdly, it was equipped with very impressive shielding, compared with nearly any other race they had yet encountered, save perhaps their own. Something the Dominion could benefit from obtaining, or at the very least learn how to defeat.

Lastly, their beam weaponry; which appeared to be plasma-based, considered an obsolete weapons technology in the current age, these were perhaps the strongest type of plasma-based weaponry the Dominion had yet encountered... and she couldn't discount the slight, if not quite non-existent possibility that those weapons hadn't been fired at their full strength?

Unfortunately, the Second chose this moment to intervene, "First, AV-538 has been destroyed by the Defiant," he spoke angrily. The Jem'Hadar rarely lost their temper in combat; although anger was useful as a motivation to defeat an enemy, it came at a loss of sound judgement. Natalya had only witnessed such an occurrence once or twice before; this did not bode well, at all. For any of them.

"We shall be next then," First acknowledged, ready to embrace his death in duty to the Founders; as their Attack Ship was struck again with the heavy plasma beams, a console at the back of the of the bridge overloaded, throwing an injured, if not dead Jem'Hadar to the deck. "Prepare to engage the Defiant," he ordered.

"I think not, belay that order," Natalya said flatly. "First, order a withdrawal; keep us within sensor range of the Earth vessel, but far enough that we can easily rendezvous with additional ships without the Defiant interfering."

"A retreat? Vorta, this is my ship; I command this crew's destiny, not you!" First exclaimed, outraged that his authority had been questioned in such a manner.

"To regroup First, not to run away. Set the course immediately... and remember I hold final authority in such matters, not you," Natalya ordered, also irritated that this soldier couldn't see the possible long-term consequences of his attitude. She might have to do something about that, later on. Possibly a permanent solution.

Seconds later, the remaining attack ship jumped to warp, leaving the Defiant and the Phoenix at a standstill, with tensions still quite thick.


	3. Chapter 3

Three

For Colonel Tanya Ward, United States Air Force, this was quite the special occasion, being the first female officer to attain command of a Daedalus-class battle-cruiser (designated BC-304's, but also referred to as Deep Space Carriers in some circles). Whatever you called it Tanya did not care this was her ship and she was going to make it the pride of the United States Air Force.

Her 'shakedown' mission was the first intergalactic journey for the Phoenix and her crew. Heading out to the Pegasus galaxy to the Ancient City of Atlantis where humanity's Atlantis Expeditionary Force was based. Aboard her ship was Lt. Colonel John Sheppard (also of the USAF), and his team as well as additional supplies for the Atlantis expedition, they were returning following a recent debriefing on Earth. Once reaching their destination, the Phoenix would take up a permanent posting near Atlantis, assisting in its defence against the various threats of the Pegasus Galaxy, the Wraith in particular, as well as aiding in the exploration of any locations that were not part of the local Stargate network.

The Phoenix was currently within in the Milky Way Galaxy, on a straight run from Earth to Atlantis' location, with very few factors that could affect them while in hyperspace; they were looking at about eighteen days' travel at their current hyperdrive velocity to reach Pegasus. Right now, everything was fairly quiet on the bridge, with the crew monitoring the vessel's systems and making adjustments as necessary. Ward allowed them to continue at their current pace, as they were in no hurry to reach Atlantis; no need to push the limits of a ship just off-the-line like the Phoenix before it was ready.

Without warning, the Phoenix's hull began to shudder badly; Major Darren Hayden, Phoenix's helm officer, was first to react. "Colonel, we've got trouble with the hyperdrive; looks like a problem with the hyperspace bubble stability" he said.

"Status? Can we maintain the field?" Ward grimaced, her earlier pleasant mood vanishing into the ether.

"Negative sir, if we try to keep this up, it could cause serious damage to the hyperdrive. Worst case, it could blow" Hayden continued.

"Recommend that we drop-out of hyperspace so we can find the problem. We could then continue on to Pegasus, or turn back towards Earth; again, worst case sir," he finished.

So much for not pushing my new ship too much, Ward thought, something had failed on Phoenix and they hadn't even done anything strenuous with it... yet.

"Alright... Hayden, shut it down. Divert power from the Asgard weapons to structural integrity. Major Craig, raise shields as soon as we drop out of hyperspace. No sense taking chances, even if no one's around," Tanya ordered quietly. The Asgard-designed beam weapons were very powerful, but they also drew upon a lot of energy that right now could be more usefully spent.

"Yes, sir." Major Lisa Craig, Phoenix's tactical officer, replied as the ship repeatedly rocked from port to starboard. It was at this moment Lt. Colonel John Sheppard entered the bridge.

"Ah, Colonel Sheppard, good timing. It looks like we've hit a slight hitch," Ward said with a slight bit of sarcasm, looking at the man of thirty-something-odd years, receiving a shrug and a lop-sided smirk in return.

John Sheppard had a rocky history at best with the United States Air Force and from what Ward had seen he was close to being kicked out, but that was before he had joined the Atlantis Expedition. Since then he seemed to have matured somewhat, and became a leader that Ward could respect, albeit not one who always followed the traditional chain-of-command preferring to make on-the-site decisions himself rather than looking for orders from superiors. It was one that made him an effective SG team leader and he could prove very useful if they ran into any further trouble.

The Phoenix rocked on its axis yet again, its hyperspace bubble collapsing inwards on itself. The Phoenix dropped-out into real space, the hyperdrive going into emergency shutdown almost instantly, preventing catastrophic failure as well as heavy systems' damage. Craig immediately raised the shields ensuring the Phoenix and her crew had some form of protection, just in case somebody hostile came across the crippled ship.

"Oh, crap!" came a voice from the back of the bridge. Ward and Sheppard turned to see Doctor Rodney McKay standing staring at one of the displays.

When exactly had he entered the bridge? No one had noticed, much to the dismay of Ward. Definitely going to have to rework the security procedures, plus add some drill time, she thought. Such inattentiveness by any of her personnel could prove to be fatal for all involved.

Rodney McKay was easily one of the most arrogant and annoying individuals a person could ever encounter. Fortunately, he was also one of the most capable scientists that Earth had to offer. In particular, he was extremely familiar the with internals of the BC-304's, having done more than a bit of work on the Daedalus, first of the 304 series and their class' namesake, making him absolutely invaluable in this kind of situation. Currently the lead scientist of the Atlantis Expedition and a member of Sheppard's team, if anyone could keep McKay in line and focused on a situation, it would be John Sheppard.

"What's wrong, McKay? The hyperdrive?" Sheppard asked, beating Ward to the punch.

"We're still in the Milky Way," McKay replied, missing Sheppard's question. Looking over at Ward, he continued, "But we're lost."

"This is a good thing, right? Can't we find our position with by the star constellations, match them up with known 'gate addresses?" Sheppard asked, slightly confused but trying to sound optimistic at the same time. At least they were still in their home galaxy, so how exactly could they be lost? he thought.

"Not really the case here!" McKay said sarcastically. "Look, we might still be in the Milky Way, but we are in a completely unexplored area of space. No SGC team has ever been in this area, thus no Stargate addresses on record to match up with, and the Phoenix doesn't exactly carry around the entire list of unexplored or uncharted 'gate addresses aboard." He explained rapidly laying down the situation they were in before returning his attention to the nearby displays.

"Our galaxy has a very large amount of space to cover. We could be anywhere, literally!" McKay finally finished not even looking at the others.

"Well said, Rodney. I'd have never figured that out, until you were so kind to explain," Sheppard retorted, with an equal degree of sarcasm. Teyla Emmagan and Ronon Dex, both being Pegasus galaxy residents as well as Sheppard's two other team members, arrived on the bridge following his remark.

"Doctor, is the hyperdrive still online? Or what about long-range communications?" Ward interrupted, taking control of the conversation before the Atlantis contingent took over her bridge. Neither Teyla or Ronin were engineers or members of the United States Air Force Ward wasn't entirely convinced they would be helpful right now, but she wasn't about to dismiss Sheppard's people in front of him.

"In order: no-go on the hyperdrive. I'm not even sure on what happened to it, but we've got no power to the drive, for now," McKay replied, looking at the nearby systems' readout. "As for long-range comms, oh they're working, no problem. But sensors read no habitable planets anywhere near us, no active subspace communication frequencies the database recognizes. Oh and another problem; they always come in threes," McKay said looking upwards at the ceiling. Everyone except Sheppard followed his gaze.

"What is it?" Sheppard's patience beginning to wane he didn't like this one bit. Neither did anyone else.

"Other than we're lost, in the middle of god knows where, and we have no working FTL?" McKay inquired, looking at the Lt. Colonel with an even more sour expression than normal, for McKay.

"Yes, Rodney! Other than you have no idea where we are, and you have no idea how to fix the hyperdrive." Sheppard returned. It was a well-known and proven fact that if McKay under put under sudden death-level pressure the scientist delivered near-miraculous results.

"Oh, c'mon, I didn't say I had no idea how to fix..." McKay began; He prided himself on being able to repair and/or improve any piece of technology, anywhere. Especially when Sheppard put him on the spot.

"McKay!" Sheppard ground out, finally loosing his temper for real with the egocentric scientist. McKay had a severe tendency to over talk. More like blab about how good he was with technology, actually. This was not the time or place for that.

"Fine, fine! We're detecting three unknown ships closing in on our position. Power readings are almost off the scale," McKay finished, looking right at the sensor displays.

"Dammit... Craig, shore up the shields, arm railguns and load all missile tubes," Ward ordered, not willing to take any chances here. The Asgard-designed shields provided an excellent passive defence against most threats, but experience demonstrated that weaponry was also a necessary deterrent, given the number of hostile species Earth had run-ins with over the last ten-odd years of off-world travel.

"Dr. McKay, if you could, head down to engineering and try to get our hyperdrive back to operational status. Bring the Asgard core online to assist if you have to, although the power drain is really inconvenient," Tanya said. McKay nodded quickly in response and rushed out of the command area.

The Asgard were a now-extinct race after millennia of repeated cloning and no sexual reproduction, resulting in genetic degradation which was beyond repair. They had given aid to humanity in the past in various forms. Before they had passed beyond they had passed on all their knowledge and technology to humanity who they considered to be the "Fifth Race" those worthy enough to carry on the Asgard legacy.

The alternative would been being held under the sway of the Ori, a hostile power of ascended humanoids from another, far-away galaxy that commanded power and technology nearly equivalent to that which the Ancients themselves once wielded; almost certainly, the Ori would've forced the Asgard to turn over their also highly-advanced technology to further the Ori's campaign of converting non-believers to their religion, Origin, and exterminating those who did not 'follow the path.' Although there was the slight possibility that the Ori could remedy the Asgard's genetic degradation, the price demanded was deemed too high to consider paying.

This particular Asgard core consumed a great deal of power while operational, being a duplicate of the original installed on the Odyssey, second of the 304's, and thus lacking the self-contained power source of the original. Regardless, it could prove invaluable in isolating the problem with the hyperdrive. And now that the Ori were a diminished threat, there shouldn't have been any problems with activating the core, which in the past had enabled Ori vessels to track the Odyssey with incredible accuracy, even through hyperspace; which should have been impossible, as neither the Ori, nor any other species, had ever demonstrated that capability beforehand.

"Unknown vessels dropping to sub-light," Hayden reported, observing the three near-purple & light-blue coloured, scarab-shaped craft that appeared ahead of them. "They've raised some pretty powerful shielding, and are powering up some kind of directed energy weapon, type unknown or power."

"Open a channel" Ward said, looking out the main windows as the first of the three craft fired an opal beam at the Phoenix. The ship rocked heavily through the hit but the shields held firm.

"Return fire, railguns and standard nukes only," Ward grimaced, they unknowns hadn't even bothered to communicate before shooting, but that wasn't an excuse to cut loose with the full firepower at her disposal she'd try to dissuade them first.

"Colonel Sheppard, if you want something to do, join our 302's and keep those alien ships busy. Otherwise, get off my bridge, ASAP; Ronon, Teyla, the Marines could use some assistance if the hostiles intend to board us," Ward said, referring to the Phoenix complement of 8 F-302 space superiority fighters and the ship's on-board combination security detachment and field assault teams, respectively. Giving one last look at his team-mates, Sheppard took off a run for the starboard hanger bay he was a proven F-302 pilot in combat against multiple enemies.

As for Ronon Dex, a lean, yet well-built tower of a man and a nearly-unequalled expert in close-quarter combat, as well as Teyla Emmagan, who despite her rather short stature, was physically very robust and nearly as much a master of close-quarters fighting as Ronon himself, the two of them would be the perfect complement to her Marine contingent in this fight. They too, followed Sheppard off the bridge, but not before giving a slight nod and short bow to Colonel Ward, from Ronon and Teyla, respectively.

"This is Colonel Tanya Ward, commanding officer of the Earth vessel USAF Phoenix to the attacking craft, cease fire." She said holding down the communications button on her console. "We bear you no hostility, and are on a re-supply mission only. However, should you continue your attack, you will face the full force of our weapons," Ward stated, just as three more beams struck the Phoenix's shields, two on the aft sections, and one on the forward quarter.

"Shields down to 87% and holding," one of the bridge officers at an auxiliary console reported, the Phoenix was taking a fair battering from the enemy weapons, much more so than from Wraith ships, surprising to them considering the effectiveness of the Asgard shielding.

"Launch starboard fighter wing," Ward ordered. Eight F-302 Fighters launched from the starboard bay, followed the Phoenix's array of railguns and conventional nuclear ordinance resuming fire on the attacking vessels; their shields flickered but held strong.

"Major Craig, bring the Asgard beams back on-line, see if they are any more effective. Start them off at low output and target the same ship our fighters are attacking, maybe we can cause some damage with a combined assault," Ward decided, as the ship's sensors detected another unknown ship entered the region. At this rate, we're definitely going to need the Asgard weaponry, despite their heavy power consumption... and probably some additional insurance on top of that, Ward concluded.

"Bridge to weapons control, commence loading of enhanced nuclear ordinance, we might need them." Ward spoke, after activating the internal communications relays.

The Phoenix, like all BC-304's nowadays, carried Mark Nine Naquadriah-enhanced nuclear warheads aboard. Naquadriah was an extremely unstable and even more reactive variant of naqudah, the element that Stargates were made of, which itself had complemented the previous Mark Eight series of tactical warheads, which Phoenix also had, but in fewer numbers. Combining naqudah with standard nuclear weapons multiplied the explosive yield a single bomb at least ten times over; Naquadriah, potentially an order of magnitude greater than that.

"Understood Colonel. The housing took a bit of a beating when we dropped into normal space; it will take five minutes to get three enhanced nukes onto the loading tray."

"Do whatever you can, weapons." Ward replied, hoping the beam weapons would be effective without added missile support.

"Sir, a fourth vessel just appeared in the area, it's a different design from the others and is hailing the attacking vessels."

"Understood put them up, Major Hayden." Tanya wanted to be in the loop as much as possible. "Dominion vessels, this is Captain Benjamin Sisko, commander of the USS Defiant. You are ordered to end your attacks or be fired upon." The voice said over the communication system. Ward and her crew looked at each other in confusion, as no Earth ship was named 'USS Defiant,' nor were any Earth ships designed like it.

"Sir, one of those ships is breaking off and attacking the new ship - the Defiant"

"Looks like they are on our side. Have Sheppard and the other fighters focus on the craft we target. And keep an eye on the Defiant, but don't target them unless they target us." Ward ordered. She'd take any break they could get in this fight, especially since her ship wasn't at 100%.

The Phoenix opened fire again on the unidentified 'Dominion' ships with railguns, conventional missiles, and Asgard weapons, causing the attacking craft's shields to flare with damage. Ward was more concerned with the other side of the battle, since what she saw was worrisome; the Defiant was very manoeuvrable and carried a heavy weapons array. She was amazed that it had taken out one of the Dominion ships already. That made Ward worry about what could happen if the Defiant decided to take on the Phoenix.

"Continue firing. We need to keep up our side of this battle," she said as the fighters made another run at the lead Dominion craft. Though they were doing little damage, they were doing their bit to keep the Dominion craft honest. Phoenix's bow mounted beam weapons lashed out again, causing the Dominion craft to physically shuddered from the most recent hits; the weapons were beginning to show their potential as more power was being pumped into them.

"Colonel, the Defiant has destroyed its second target; they are coming around to our target." Craig said as the third and final craft began manoeuvring away from them.

]"We're detecting a power spike from the vessel, possibly engines," said Hayden as he glanced at the readouts on his console. Moments later, the Dominion craft jumped out of the area, accelerating to speeds beyond what Phoenix was capable of. "The Defiant is slowing to a full stop. Their shields are still up, but their weapons powering down."

"Have Colonel Sheppard and his fighters regroup around us, and bring us in line with the Defiant. Keep shields up and weapons fully powered. Let's see what happens."


	4. Chapter 4

Firstly thanks for all the comments and support I'm really glad you liked the introduction chapters (all pretty much the same scene but from different viewpoints, thought it felt different.)

Second I haven't really underpowered the Phoenix earlier in the Phoenix's viewpoint Ward powers down the Asgard beams then she only takes them back up to a fraction of their power. The ship is also new the crew are just getting used to her so watch this space :)

Four

The Defiant held position opposite the Phoenix, neither vessel moving so much as an inch. Eight small ships, deployed from the latter vessel (apparently a type of fighter craft judging from their sensor profiles) had arrayed themselves in a defensive formation around the Phoenix. In front of the smaller Defiant the Phoenix looked imposing, its unknown nature making it a potential threat.

Benjamin Sisko was not a man for stand-offs; he decided it was time to break the ice. "Well they haven't fired on us, I suppose that's something," he muttered quietly, from the centre chair. "Major Kira, contact the Phoenix, see if we can get some answers."

"Acknowledged... never mind, they're already hailing us, Captain. Receiving audio and visual telemetry," his executive officer replied; the Bajoran national sounded quite surprised, along with the entire bridge crew. None of them couldn't help wondering what the hell was going on here.

"On screen," Sisko said remaining in his chair not wishing to seem imposing or threatening.

On the forward viewscreens, a side view of the comparatively-utilitarian bridge of the Phoenix appeared; apparently their viewscreens was mounted on their bridge's port-side wall. Three figures, all apparently human; one woman and one man sitting in the background, their stations located several feet ahead forward of a central command chair.

Dominating the viewscreens at the moment, however, stood a female officer with the unmistakable air of command authority. All three of them wore dark green jumpsuits; the officer in question appeared to have a vessel or unit patch over her right-side breast pocket, as well as both arms, near the shoulders.

Come to think of it, those uniforms looked like something out of some old historical record, but where or when, I can't quite place, Sisko pondered. "I am Captain Benjamin Sisko of the Federation starship Defiant, may we offer our assistance?" He asked raising from his chair.

Aboard the Phoenix, Colonel Ward critically observed the tall, bald-headed dark skinned human male, who possessed quite the distinguishing moustache and goatee. His choice of uniform was a two-tone, red and black jumpsuit with under shirt, including a silver and gold chevron-shaped badge over the left breast. He was unmistakably human at least to the immediate eye as was his accent he sounded like he was from the North American continent on Earth.

She couldn't help but suspect that she'd seen the design from somewhere, but dismissed the thought as irrelevant to the situation. "Captain Sisko it's nice to meet you I'm Colonel Tanya Ward of the Phoenix," Ward nodded. "What Federation are you referring to?" she asked, trying not to look too surprised as she looked around the Defiant's bridge image, as she took in the not-quite-human appearances of some of the other bridge personnel.

Apparently non-human crew members served on board the Defiant, all wearing a variation of same uniform (save for one officer, who had a slightly-ridged nasal bridge), though with different colours for the shoulder-level bands. Probably indicative of a different department or service specialization, Ward assumed, if they were anything like the Atlantis Personnel which used the same system; red-command, blue-sciences/medical and yellow-engineering/operations.

In contrast, none served aboard Phoenix. Indeed, between Stargate Command and the Atlantis Expedition, there was only one prominent non-human: Teal'c, of the Free Jaffa. Former First Prime of Apophis, one of the now-deceased or else overthrown Goa'uld System Lords; and even now he was not fully trusted by some of the higher ranking-brass in the Pentagon, in spite of repeated recommendations of trustworthiness by Generals' Hank Landry, Jack O'Neill, and George Hammond, all of whom had vouched firmly for Teal'c's character many times over the years.

"The United Federation of Planets is based in the Alpha Quadrant of this galaxy, on the other side of the Bajoran wormhole, with 150 member worlds, not including any colonies," Sisko answered, starting to suspect what had really occurred here, and just what exactly he and his crew had encountered. "Colonel, if I may ask, what year is it?"

"It's 2008, last I checked." Ward replied "oh no..." she whispered just loud enough to be heard. She'd assumed he meant Earth time, as he appeared to be human, and just maybe from Earth as well, although that assumption had no evidence to back it up. But for Sisko to ask that question? That could only mean... Damn, she really didn't need this right now, if this conversation was going where she thought it was, she cursed.

"Colonel... the current year is 2373." Sisko said pausing, allowing the information to sink in. "I think we need to talk," Sisko continued, stepping forward. The display image angled downward to include another of Sisko's crew: a woman with long (past USAF regulation), dark hair, and spot-like tattoos down the side of her face and neck. Her uniform had blue-coloured shoulder bands; possibly a sciences' specialist, if their uniform colours were similar to those of the Atlantis Expedition members. However, looking at her Ward got the impression of a steel fist under a velvet glove; pleasant (and human-enough) in appearance, but looks could be deceiving.

"You're serious. It's 2373? Great. That's just great..." Ward grumbled, that last part under her breath. Time travel. It just had to be time travel, didn't it? Three hundred and sixty-five years had just flown by; it had to be related to the hyperdrive malfunction. And here I thought time travel was SG-1's bad habit... maybe also Sheppard's group, given both teams' penchant for tempting Murphy... or fate. Damn, she should have insisted on Sheppard and his people going back on Daedalus or Apollo; too late for that now, Ward mused.

She recovered fairly quickly, though. "Agreed, Captain. We need to talk, before that... Dominion ship comes back with friends. However, several of our systems are currently off-line. Request permission to for myself, and a small party to come over to your ship?" This little excursion would also allow them to see the Defiant's interior, maybe check if Sisko's story held up to some close-up scrutiny.

"Very well, Colonel, I have no objections. We do have technology that can instantly bring you over from your vessel to our own, it's a perfectly safe method of travel," Sisko replied, about to give them the basics of matter/energy transporters. If these people really were from the year 2008, it was unlikely that they knew about such technology; but given the time constraints, a conventional visit would take too long... and even so, one of their fighters might not even fit in the Defiant's cramped shuttle bay.

"We propose using a matter/energy transporter to 'beam' you over to the Defiant, rather than using one of your fighters. We can begin whenever you're ready, unless you have objections to that method?" Sisko asked. Given the risk of encountering more Dominion warships, it really was the only alternative, Prime Directive notwithstanding, other than manually docking both vessels together, which also had its own set of issues to overcome.

"No offence, Captain Sisko, but we'd prefer to use our own transporters," Ward replied, not really in the mood to trust an unknown, potentially dangerous form of teleportation technology, unlike the time-and-again proven Asgard transporters and the Goa'uld Ring systems, both of which Phoenix was equipped with. "If that is acceptable to you and your crew?"

Sisko was once again caught off-guard; he hadn't expected the Phoenix to have that capability. How was it possible for a early 21st century-era vessel to have that kind of technology? Hell, how did Earth even have space-going vessels like this at the time? As far as Federation History was concerned Earth of the year 2008 was involved in a spiralling war that would eventually become known as World War Three none of this was adding up.

Nowhere in the Federation database indicated anything even remotely approaching what this supposed Earth ship was capable of: extremely resistant shielding capable of holding off Dominion weaponry, something only military-purpose ships like Defiant, the Akira-class cruisers, or the new Sovereign-class tactical explorers were capable of matching; one the most powerful forms of plasma-based weaponry currently on official Starfleet record... well, the unclassified record, anyway; and on top of that, transporter technology as well. Probably even an advanced form of FTL travel, considering how deeply they were within the Gamma Quadrant, Sisko thought nothing made sense maybe with them here he could unravel some of it.

Back on the Phoenix, Ward was also having thoughts of a similar nature, as she clearly took in Sisko's almost-shocked expression over the view screen. How could these people not know that Phoenix was equipped with Asgard transporters or Goa'uld ring systems? Just what could have happened back on Earth in the past near-three centuries that resulted in the Defiant having such a different technological base? Ward thought suspiciously nothing made sense.

Could this be a hole in their story, one that my crew and I can exploit? On the other hand: Sisko's expression, including some of his crews'; either they were putting on an Oscar worthy performance... or they really are genuinely surprised, she concluded some time with them may explain it.

"Understood," Sisko said, recovering from his surprise. "We'll send over coordinates for our transporter room." Sisko finished, nodding to Chief O'Brien, who immediately transmitted the coordinates on a sub-channel.

Ward noticed Major Hayden nod at that with a quick look behind her; they had received coordinates to a specific room, for transporting ship-to-ship without using Rings. She supposed it was a form of security measure, a rather wise decision in her mind; it effectively gave Sisko and his people a slightly greater degree of control over the situation, something she would probably have done if the situation were reversed.

Mind you, Ward was grateful for the Defiant and its crew for helping them out, but still, certain procedures had to be followed. And again, there was nothing to gain by taking chances.

"Thank you, Captain. We'll beam over after we've recalled our fighters and assembled a five person-party; say, twenty minutes from now?" Ward suggested.

Sisko seemed somewhat pleased with this approach, as it would give the Defiant and her people time to get ready as well. "Done and done, Colonel Ward. I suggest you keep your shields at full strength and sensors at maximum range. I wouldn't be surprised if company shows up at the worst possible moment," Sisko replied.

Considering he didn't mention any specific names, nor transmit any additional data, Ward guessed that Sisko meant ships belonging to the same group... the Dominion, probably led by the same vessel that had escaped barely ten minutes ago.

Tanya Ward did not like not knowing specifics, but she had a job to do, and a more important task to get over with as quickly as possible. She swore to herself to get as much information on those hostile ships, and whoever crewed them, as one of her top priorities in the meeting.

"Understood, we'll see you in twenty minutes. Phoenix, out." she stated, signalling to cut the channel. Turning back to Hayden and Craig, Ward got down to business.

"Have Sheppard and the other 302s RTB immediately. Keep the shields at maximum, just in case our welcoming committee decides to return, and have Engineering prep the Asgard beam weapons for full-power shots; no more pussy-footing around. And have Mark Nine warheads loaded in all VLS tubes; let's give the bad guys one hell of a shock if they show up," Ward ordered she noticed a smirk on Hayden's face at that idea.

After pausing a bit to further collect her thoughts, she continued. "I want all damage assessment reports on my desk in fifteen minutes, along with a preliminary on Dr. McKay's efforts to repair the hyperdrive. If we need to bug out, we're going to need it. Get to it, people!" With that said, Ward left the bridge, the crew moving quickly to perform their assigned tasks.

She could sense additional trouble on the horizon, a lot more of it. And heaven willing, Phoenix would be more than ready for their next fight, and there was no question that there'd be more of them, given the... Dominion's approach to first contact situations.

For the time being, however, she had a meeting with another crew and their ship, who were potentially three centuries ahead of her own. She had to be ready for anything.


	5. Chapter 5

This is a really short chapter so I'm going to answer a couple of questions.

An unasked one but it's probably there. I haven't abandoned the BSG/Space Above and Beyond story I'm working a lot and this is all previously written stuff waiting in the wings. I'll be back to BSG after work ends then back to this one.

highlander348 – It's after Worf joins in. I'd say not long after "Looking for par'Mach in all the wrong places" in season five shortly after the start of their relationship. As for the Phoenix and Defiant crews they will find out more about each other in the next few chapters.

Five

Sitting in her personal quarters Natalya looked over what little sensor data they had gleaned from the conflict with the Phoenix. From sensor data it defiantly seemed to be a human vessel even down to English hull markings on its aft raised hull section. Wherever the ship was from it carried impressive technology, the Jem'Hadar weapons had damaged it but not badly, something the Dominion rarely encountered - the Borg didn't count as a normal occurrence, Natalya shuddered at that thought a dark day for the Dominion all those centuries ago, though she had not personally been there she remembered it thanks to the Vorta's Genetic Memory. The door quarters chime went off disturbing her from her reading "enter" she called in walked a Jem'Hadar solider, the former Second-in-command of the vessel, among the Jem'Hadar at least.

"Vorta, we have contacted more Jem'Hadar vessels, they will arrive in three standard hours." Natalya ignored him for a moment reading deeper into the database, his information was helpful but not critical, the information on the Phoenix was more important. She could feel his disapproving gaze on the back of her neck, the Jem'Hadar never sat down or slept they had no need for rest and though this Jem'Hadar was better than his predecessor he wasn't any bigger a fan of the Vorta.

"Well done, First" she said looking at the Jem'Hadar smiling, following the combat with the Phoenix and the Defiant she had removed the previous First from the chain of command, "do not fail me like your predecessor." She warned the Second looked slightly angry at the thought of the Vorta's power although Natalya also detected a slight amount of amusement on the First's face as well, his predecessor had not been killed, that would not have been an effective form of punishment and would have left the ship one solider down, so now he was cleaning the warp conducts of this very Attack Ship, a dangerous and dirty duty at the best of time and a total humiliation for the former First. Due to the Jem'Hadar command procedure it was possible that one day he may become a First again, by defeating all warriors above him one rank at a time, but by then he'd be considered an Elder and no-doubt be defeated by a younger, smarter Jem'Hadar. Natalya liked the Jem'Hadar's form of procedure and the fact they would be lucky to live fifteen years, it made revenge almost impossible for one of them, if they could even understand the concept. The Vorta mused on this for a moment as the new First interrupted her.

"I will not, Vorta" he said waiting to be dismissed, he knew from serving under her that this Vorta was different to others of her kind both in looks and attitude. Although the Jem'Hadar may have been spurred on by her physical differences from other Vorta, her almost blue eyes and tanned skin far different from the purple tinged eyes and skin shared by most Vorta.

"Obedience is Life…" she began quietly turning back to her analysis.

"And Life is Victory" the new First said finishing the sentence, walking from the room, Natalya laughed lightly looking back at the reports, these Jem'Hadar were not perfect but they would do.

"Life will be a true Victory if we capture this ship." She said almost in a whisper, the more she read about the Phoenix the more she was impressed although some of the technology was archaic in comparison to the Dominion's or even Starfleet's other parts of the ships seemed to be hyper advanced possibly more so than anything ever encountered by the Dominion or any of the Alpha Quadrant Empires, she wanted it but more than that she wanted to ensure that Starfleet did not gain this vessel and its technology.

Standing she crossed the room and picked up a large hexagon-shaped chest with a rectangular shaped handle above it, built from the same material used to build Attack Ship hulls. This chest was another tool of her authority, the chest that held the Ketracel White. The White was necessary for the Jem'Hadar's very survival, without it they could not operate normally and would either become hyper aggressive and begin killing until they died or they would simply cease to function and die. The Founders were the only ones who knew how to produce the drug and because of the Founder's trust in they overseers it was one more tool that was used to keep the Jem'Hadar in check it was another indication to Natalya at least that the Vorta were the chosen of the Founders not the Jem'Hadar, they may be the soldiers but the Vorta were the real successors to the Founders. Waiting for a few seconds more she nodded to herself and walked back into the main command room of the Attack Ship giving the Jem'Hadar Soldiers their much needed drug, they would need the strength gained from the White in the next few days, they would need it to capture the Phoenix.


	6. Chapter 6

Because five was so small here's a bonus

Six

The twenty minutes passed quickly Sisko thought, having spent the time reading the history of the early 21st century. The United States of America had been the most powerful nation during that time, before the beginning of the Eugenics War that sparked the Third World War. They had a massive Air Force, believing that they could beat any enemy with mass air power, not through a large ground force, much like Starfleet of today. Also, they had aircraft that could push the atmosphere/space barrier for limited periods and were jointly active with the National Aeronautical Space Agency (NASA), the civilian space agency of the age, in developing space craft. But there was no indication that they, or any other nation of the time, had any star ships capable of deep space travel, let alone space combat.

In the wider history of Earth, the Phoenix had been a popular myth of the ages; the bird that rose from the ashes to fight on when all other forces had died in battle. And in more recent history it had been the name of the first of Earth's Warp Capable vessels, but nothing that suggested a United States Air Force craft capable of travel and combat in space a century before.

Looking at the vessel itself and its armaments, the Phoenix was again a mystery. Its railguns were a popular upgrade for wet-navy warships of the age, capable of propelling solid slugs at supersonic speeds causing heavy damage, yet there was no mention of them ever being used in space. The nuclear missile weapons used by the vessel were again a standard of the 21st Century and early Earth vessels had carried them but they were so primitive they had been replaced before Earth had even built its first warp five vessel.

Then there was its more exotic items: the shielding as strong as a Sovereign-class Explorer/Battleship's, which extremely unusual considering basic shielding was totally unheard of even at the time. Earth's early Starfleet, including their flagship design the NX-class, used hull-polarization instead of the more expensive and untested early shields. Offensively, the beam weapons were plasma based, these were like early Earth starship weapons, however, that was where the similarities ended. These plasma weapons were powerful, from the Defiant's sensor readings they hadn't been near their full strength, again impossible for the age this ship claimed to be from. And their ability to transport on board the Defiant was another impossibility; the first Earth Starfleet warp five capable ship, Enterprise, went into deep space with the first human-built transporter that could beam living beings and it was launched a century after this Phoenix supposedly went to space.

Without further information, Sisko had no choice but to wait until the Phoenix's party beamed over to the Defiant. The fact they wanted to beam over themselves worried Sisko, so he took the precaution of having a pair of security officers standing by outside the transporter room; at the same time, Worf, O'Brien, himself were all armed. The Phoenix contacted them just before transport and the shields were lowered for a total of ten seconds as the Phoenix commenced its transport. The Defiant crew had no idea how the transport beams on the Phoenix worked, so they lowered the shields as a precaution, just in case that like Starfleet's transporters they did not go through shielding.

"Sir, I don't recognize this type of transporter technology, and they aren't using our buffers." O'Brien reported. Having been a transporter chief for years before joining the crew of Deep Space Nine, he was an expert in all things transporter related; if he didn't recognize the transporter, then it had to be something very exotic. "Captain, we aren't going to be able to detect or disable any weapons."

"Understood. Just another mystery." Sisko murmured as five individuals begin to materialize on the transporter pad. Unlike Starfleet transporters, and just about every other transporter Sisko had seen, the figures did not materialize as atoms and coalesce; instead, they appeared in a flash of light. Worf stepped forward, reaching for his phaser; he saw the lead two people clutching weapons as they fully materialized.

"Stand-down, Mr Worf. Remember, we are armed too and we are in hostile territory." The Klingon officer nodded and stepped back in line. Sisko knew he was a Security officer first and a command officer second, always a fighter. But he also one of the best damned officers he'd ever served with, despite the fact Worf had only recently joined the crew of Deep Space Nine; during the Klingon Invasion of Cardassia, he'd impressed Sisko enough for the Captain to ask him to permanently join the crew.

On the transporter pad, Sisko saw two women and three men. At the front, two men stood: one in a black combat uniform with vest and holding what appeared to be a small compact sub-machine gun, he'd seen in one of the archives earlier, while the other wore light fitting clothing and a long dark leather jacket and carried what appeared to be some type of energy pistol. Both were raised as soon as they beamed in. "Welcome aboard the USS Defiant. I am Captain Benjamin Sisko. Your weapon's are not needed." Sisko said, stepping forward as the five began moving off the pad.

"Colonel Sheppard, Ronon stand down. Let's see what the Captain wants to say." Ward said, looking at Sisko's open arms approach. She could see his weapon, but it wasn't even in his hand. Neither of the Atlantis personnel stood down.

"Lt Colonel Sheppard, step aside." Ward ordered, adding rank to her request. This isn't not the time for Sheppard to buck against orders, she thought.

"Negative, Colonel. I'd like to know why the Captain has Commander Cowen aboard his vessel, in one of his uniforms? What kind of game are we playing this time Cowen?" Sheppard asked, looking up slightly. This had be the biggest cosmic joke ever - Thanks Murphy he thought dryly, glancing upwards, thinking of the power that made all cosmic jokes and cursing, Why now of all times?

"Who?" Ward exclaimed, looking at Sheppard in confusion. She had no idea what he was talking about or who Cowen was. I probably should have looked at his mission reports when I learned I was going to Atlantis, she thought bitterly.

"Commander Cowen, commander of the Genii." Sheppard said angrily, pointing at O'Brien. Seeing that Ward and everybody but his team had no idea what he was going on about, Sheppard decided to give them a quick recap. "A group of humans in Pegasus. He should be dead; two years ago, an internal revolt toppled his leadership by leaving a nuke under his feet and no-way off the planet."

Cowen hadn't been a friend to the Atlantis Expedition. He had tried to place spies on the base and even tried to overrun Atlantis once while the city had been evacuated due to a massive hurricane on the city's original home planet - resulting in the death of several Atlantis personnel.

"Chief O'Brien has been a member of my crew for four years and a member of Starfleet for a long time before that." Sisko exclaimed, looking at his bewildered Chief of Operations. He wasn't the slightest bit amused by whatever game these people were playing. The Defiant and its crew had just saved their lives; Some gratitude would be nice, Sisko thought. "Whatever similarity to this 'Commander Cowen' is purely coincidental." Sisko said, trying to reassure them. "Now stand the hell down Colonel" he said more firmly immediately Ward recognized that tone it was one of a CO of a ship who was beginning to become pissed off with someone he wanted off his ship.

"Colonel, the Captain has explained. These people just saved us from an unknown force, so let's give them the benefit of the doubt." Ward said. Sheppard and Ronon exchanged looks, before nodding and lowering their weapons to allow Tanya Ward to push past them.

"Captain Sisko, my apologies for this unpleasantness. Permission to come aboard?" she asked. It was an old naval tradition for new crew or visitors to ask the commander of the receiving vessel for permission to board as soon as they met. Considering the USS prefix on the Defiant's side, Ward suspected that Sisko would appreciate this courtesy.

"Permission granted," Sisko said clasping her outstretched hand as Ward stepped down from the transporter pad. "Colonel, I think we need to talk... we have a briefing area set up and ready. If you would like to follow me?" He moved away from the transporter, leading them to the door. Sisko noticed that all five of them newcomers from the Phoenix were a little wary around Worf; obviously, they had never seen a Klingon before that factor made Worf even more useful than usual. Leading the Phoenix crew down a short corridor to the mess hall, the group entered the room and found the Defiant command crew waiting for them. "I'm afraid we do not have a dedicated briefing room; so this will have to suffice."

"Who needs formality when you can have a cosy room like this," Sheppard quipped as they moved in along one wall. Sisko noted that the previous edge in his voice from when he arrived was gone.

"Of course this will suffice," Ward said as she examined the room. Perhaps we would've been better on the Phoenix; at least the mess hall has a view of space, she thought. For a ship three hundred years in the future of her vessel, Ward was under whelmed by the compact nature of the Defiant.

"Allow me to introduce my crew. Major Kira Nerys, my executive officer, from Bajor." The Bajoran female with short ginger hair nodded. Her nose had several distinct ridges, revealing she was non-human, but pretty close to it she also wore an elaborate definitely not military regulation earring were these people civilians?! Ward wondered regardless she had the feeling that Kira would be ready for a fight with anyone, anywhere. "Lieutenant Commander Jadzia Dax," Sisko introduced the women with tattoos they had seen on the monitor. "She is a Trill, my science officer and pilot."

"Welcome aboard" Dax said warmly, looking at the Phoenix crew all in turn. Though she seemed young, Ward could tell the woman was very experienced and valued by Sisko.

"Chief Miles O'Brien, Chief of Engineering, from Earth." Sisko continued, though unlike the others, O'Brien was a non-commissioned officer. Despite the previous unpleasantness, O'Brien even managed a small smile. Just by looking at him, Ward could see that O'Brien was a battle tested warrior, as was most of Sisko's senior staff. Ready for anything, she thought. A combat crew or a civilian crew? They seemed full of contradictions Ward though silently. She also wondered where they had gained such experience the Gou'ld, Ori or some other threat to Earth and the other worlds of this Federation?

"Doctor Julian Bashir, also from Earth, our chief medical officer", Sisko continued on as Ward was lost in her thoughts; she silently kicked herself for slipping up, refocusing on the now instead of her thoughts as she caught up to Sisko. "And you have already met Lieutenant Commander Worf. He is a Klingon and our Tactical Operations officer." Sisko finished off by introducing the tallest member of Sisko's command staff. Worf stood there looking at them with a small frown on his face. He didn't look particularly happy or pleasant, though there was something - familiar? - to Ward and she didn't know why.

"Thank you, Captain. My party isn't actually from the Phoenix crew; they are members of the Atlantis Expedition. This is Lt. Colonel John Sheppard, commander of their team, Doctor Rodney McKay, lead scientist, Ronon Dex, from Sateda, and Teyla Emmagan, from Athos. Both from the Pegasus Galaxy."

"The Pegasus Galaxy?" Dax suddenly asked astonished by the revelation. "You're serious?"

"Quite serious, Commander. We originally travelled there via the Stargate, but these days, we take the Phoenix or another ship to save power and to transport large quantities of supplies." McKay began to prattle on and on, forcing Sheppard to step on the doctor's foot to shut him up. McKay visibly winced, but didn't open his mouth; instead, he stared daggers at Sheppard.

"Perhaps we should sit?" Sisko suggested before he began to speak. "Colonel, I've reviewed our historical records and there is nor record of the Phoenix or any other ships. In fact, we have no record of any space combat craft launched around 2008. We do have records of a Major John Sheppard," Sisko said, glancing at Sheppard. Sheppard wasn't that surprised; he had been a Major before he joined Atlantis and because of the secret nature of his work, it was possible that some details were off.

"And a Doctor Rodney McKay" Sisko said, looking at McKay. Both disappeared off the radar in late 2004 and were never heard of again. As for the rest of you, we don't have any records." Sisko said, looking at each in turn. Ward was rather surprised that her record wasn't recovered but remained quiet.

"Well, as soon as we joined the SGC/Atlantis, our records became more secret than who shot JFK," McKay said casually. "Teyla and Ronon are from another Galaxy, so it's no surprise you got nothing on them, and the Colonel... well we can't all be famous."

"You probably don't have any records on the Phoenix and her sister ships because the Stargate Program and the development program which led to the F-302, X-303, and BC-304 were projects ran by the United States Air Force were classified as top secret/eyes only by the United States Government and the International Oversight Committee." Ward said, staring at the Captain. She had little else to say on the matter until she got more information.

"International Oversight Committee?" Sisko had never heard of such a thing and there weren't any records of such an organization in the history files he had seen.

"A group set up following the revelation of the existence of the Stargate Program, inside Cheyenne Mountain, to other governments by the United States President. They have oversight over Stargate operations, Earth defence, based primarily out of Area 51, and the Atlantis Expedition." Ward quickly explained, before asking, "Captain, perhaps you should tell us your side of history and we'll see where we are?"

Sisko raised a small computer PADD from the table. At less than an inch thick, it seemed quite advanced, possibly more advanced than an Ancient computer pad from Atlantis, though Ward was reluctant to use size as an indicator of advancement. "In 2026, Cheyenne Mountain, under the command of a Major-General Hank Landry, was destroyed by a combined air-burst and underground nuclear explosion. There was nothing left."

All five of the personnel from the Phoenix were shocked by the news; all of them knew General Landry, commander of Stargate Command. "As for Area 51, there was no real information I could find. Except that around 2026, at the same time as Cheyenne Mountain was destroyed, the base was commanded by a Major-General Samantha Carter." It was another shock for the Atlantis personnel, though a minor one; Carter was the Colonel in charge of Atlantis. Carter could've gotten a promotion between now and then, and somebody took over her position at Atlantis, Ward thought, though it raised a rather troubling issue: why hadn't any of the technology being developed there come into common use between 2008 and the present? She had the feeling that she wouldn't like the answer.

"I believe that it was destroyed in the opening attacks of the Third World War." As for any starships that were active at the time, there are no records of their destruction or survival," Sisko continued, "nor is there any records of any off-world bases or any travel to other galaxies." He passed over the PADD to the Atlantis personnel. They saw it was a multicolour display touch screen machine; definitely advanced hardware - far more so than the hand-held devices on Atlantis.

"What about other races of the time - the Tokra, the Goa'uld, Unas, Langarans, Hebridans, or the Ori? Any record of their actions or demise?" Sheppard asked, naming a bunch of races that the SGC encountered (and he remembered reading up on).

"We don't have any records of those races," Dax said after consulting her own padd. "Humanity's first recorded contact was with the Vulcan race, following humanity's first faster-than-light journey aboard the 'Phoenix' designed by Dr Zefram Cochrane in 2063."

"I think you'll find we were in deep space a long time before that." McKay said, sounding a bit condescending, before starting off a brief lecture on the Phoenix's basic drive systems. "We use Naqudah Generators to power our hyperdrive systems, which are a lot faster than standard faster-than-light drives. I'm not even sure if real space faster-than-light flight is possible, not to mention that it would take months, if not years, to get somewhere."

This just isn't adding up, thought Ward. Even if Area 51 and the SGC were obliterated, surely there would be back-ups of all the data from those facilities not to mention the data held by Russia, China and their other allies.

"We use an anti-matter/matter reaction to create plasma, which drives our warp nacelles, allowing us to attain speeds many times the speed of light." O'Brien explained, slightly offended by McKay's dismissal of the Defiant's (by extension, Starfleet's) mode of deep space flight.

"You use Star Trek power, do you?" McKay asked, fairly irritated by the Starfleet personnel using such a common cultural reference against them. I can't believe that they think we would fall for that, McKay angrily thought. What do they take us for?

"Star Trek?" Worf inquired. Judging by the puzzled expressions on the faces of the Defiant crew members, none of them knew of it.

"Oh com'on!" McKay's anger got the best of him and he began to shout as he rose from his seat. Teyla and Ronon rolled their eyes, waiting for Sheppard to top McKay's rant before it went to far. "It's obvious something is going on here…"

"Rodney, sit down and shut up." Sheppard quietly spoke, looking at McKay angrily. McKay sat back down and glowered at the Starfleet personnel sitting across the table. Sheppard stifled a groan as he glanced at Ronon and Teyla for support; all he got were shrugs. Apparently, they decided to stay out of what they felt was a Earther issue.

I know where McKay is coming from, but this is not the time to piss these people off, he thought, glancing at McKay. Whoever these people are, they don't seem the type that we want as enemies... not yet anyway.

"Captain, it's been a long day. May I suggest we recess temporarily... my ship sustained damage when we dropped out of Hyperspace, along with damage to our shields from our encounter with the 'Dominion'." Ward said running a hand through her black hair, feeling a headache coming on. She knew where McKay was coming from and had seen holes in the explanations from the Defiant's crew; they seemed to be taking things from Earth and twisting them to fit their reality, whatever that was. She didn't understand or like it, but this wasn't the time for another fight... at least until the Phoenix was combat ready.

"Of course. If there is anyway we could help you with repairs, my crew would be more than happy to assist." Sisko's offer seemed reasonable, but even if his people were trustworthy, there was no way Ward would let them anywhere near her ship's critical systems. But perhaps Sisko and his crew could be of some use.

"Thank you Captain. My crew can likely repair all damage ourselves, since our casualties were light. However, some of our equipment is quite exotic... my chief engineer provided me with a list of parts we need to complete full repairs." Ward handed over a small paper notepad to Sisko, who handled it like an ancient relic from an archaeological dig site. He handed it off to Chief O'Brien, who looked baffled by it, gingerly flipping some of the pages.

"We'll get on this as soon as possible," Sisko told Ward "In the meantime, may I suggest that we begin heading for the Wormhole at sub light speeds. The Dominion is likely to be on the prowl." At warp, they were three days away, but at sub-light, it would take over a month to get there. The likelihood of a Dominion attack was high in either case.

"Understood. I'll have our top speed forwarded to you and we could get a course from there. I'd appreciate it if you could provide us with a full history lesson on what has happened since we have been missing. I'd like to give my people a little closure."

"Of course," Sisko effectively ended the meeting. As the Atlantis personnel left the room, the Starfleet crew thought they were getting somewhere, while the Atlantis crew felt even more lost, meanwhile Sisko though about Starfleet's reaction to all this Temporal Investigations were going to have kittens when they heard about this one and they thought Kirk was bad? Murphy was having a laugh at everyone's expense today.


	7. Chapter 7

Seven

With the meeting on the Defiant over the Phoenix party travelled back over to their own vessel, Ward entered the bridge first ordering helm to send the Defiant's helm their maximum speed and follow the smaller vessel's course once they got under way, she collected some reports from her command chair and joined Colonel Sheppard and his team in the briefing room.

The briefing room was a large room on the Phoenix's port side, two rooms behind the command bridge, the room had a long table with nine chairs around it, four on each side and one at the end nearest the door. At the other end of the top chair was four large windows looking out onto space, in the centre of the window was the almost diminutive Defiant flying alongside them, its bright blue and red engine nacelles clear against the backdrop of space, it's light grey hull in stark contrast to the Phoenix's dark-gunmetal grey colouring.

"So what are we thinking?" Ward said skimming through the reports that had been left for her attention.

"Well they are obviously lying" McKay said straight away.

"I sensed no indication they were lying, they seemed very open and as perplexed by the situation as us." Teyla said, she had a knack for picking out when people were hiding something or intentionally misleading her, the Defiant crew had acted more surprised than deceiving.

"But some of their story just doesn't work out." Sheppard began looking at McKay "Star Trek power?" he asked looking at the Doctor, "what did I say about naming things?"

"It's appropriate" Ward said in almost a whisper, it was almost like they had fallen through one of those weird anomalies that existed in that TV show but in all their years of space travel no USAF Spacecraft had ever encountered.

"What are you on about?" Ronon said looking at the three people from Earth, he was missing something and although he didn't always get the Atlantis people this seemed to be something else.

"Star Trek, is a TV series" Sheppard explained Ronon nodded understanding the concept, Sheppard had explained TV and he'd seen some in a couple of his brief trips to Earth. It was very boring. "In the 60s it was popular, it was followed by a feature film but it crashed and burned people went onto new things." Sheppard said thinking "These people are using things from the series as if it was real life."

"The Ship classifications - USS, the organisations - Starfleet, Federation, the ranks - Captain etc, the badges - a variation of the TV series badge, even that Klingon Worf were all similar to the Klingons in the film, better make-up though." McKay listed off the similarities he'd noticed the Captain seemed a lot less like the Kirk character.

"So what you're saying is we are being lied to?" Ronon asked just to make sure he was picking it up right.

"That's how it looks…" Ward said her voice drifting off as she read the last report "however, maybe not." She said handing it to McKay who read it then read it again just as quick.

"This isn't possible." McKay whispered "this cannot have happened… we cannot become Star Trek." He mourned thinking of the possibilities if this was true as Sheppard took the piece of paper and read the report as well before placing it on the table.

"Would someone please tell us what is going on" Ronon said getting annoyed as Teyla picked up the piece of paper, it was full of diagrams and calculations most made no sense to her but a couple she recognized.

"Stellar-drift" Sheppard explained, Ronon looked just as lost as before. "Over the years planets drift apart changing their coordinates a tiny amount but noticeable to sensors as sensitive as the Phoenix's. We first encountered it when the Stargate Program began on Earth, planets had moved apart so we found it impossible to link to any other planet until Stellar-drift was taken into account." He explained as he reached out and tapped the piece of paper "this piece of paper states that the galaxy has drifted slightly compared to out navigation records, in essence it states that at least 350 years have passed." He said there was no known way to fake these kind of results, the Phoenix crew had taken the measurements themselves, using their own computers and equipment.

"So these people are telling the truth?" Teyla asked placing the paper back down on the table, almost smiling as her intuition was proven correct, these people were the souls she had felt.

"It looks like it, at least the part about two-and-a-half centuries past since before the accident, why they'd make up a history using a fictional setting doesn't make sense." Ward said picking the paper back up "some of the readings are slightly off, Abidos, the first planet that the Stargate Program on Earth visited, doesn't exist on our updated maps and there is twice the amount of Nebula Gases in the Galaxy. Not only that we are detecting hundreds of ships and radio transitions in this quadrant of the Galaxy alone."

It was like they were in a different universe she noticed the two Pegasus natives looking worried "our sensors are nowhere near as effective enough to reach Pegasus however if this has happened here it is possible Pegasus is in similar condition." She explained, Stellar-drift was not a Milky Way unique phenomenon, as far as she knew.

"Actually Pegasus will likely be worse, it is a younger galaxy than ours, things will be moving faster - cosmically speaking" McKay said quietly thinking as he stared into space, at the Defiant. "I wouldn't be surprised if half the Stargate network has changed or doesn't connect by now at least not before some modification."

"Doctor, does the Stargate network's status effect this ship at this moment, can we use it at all?" Ward asked, she was tired and had no time for the Doctor's five minute runs of fact and fiction.

"No, the Phoenix hasn't got a copy of the Stargate grid from either galaxy and a Stargate can't get us out of this." McKay said quietly "I don't know what will get us out of this" he admitted.

"What about our Hyper-drive engine? Can we at least get that operational again? Give us some options" Sheppard asked, if they had no Hyper-drive they couldn't get away from where they were and if more of those ships, or anyone else, arrived then they may be less lucky the next time.

"If the Defiant can create the parts we need then we should have the drive back online in around sixteen hours." McKay said after a moments thought, the drive was not badly damaged, however I have no idea how we will get back to our time.

"Sixteen hours is a long time for us to be stuck here." Ward said thinking of the longer game, the Phoenix had taken damage in the last fight, if the Dominion ships came in larger numbers then it may nor get through the second fight. She had already ordered the full force of her ship's weapons to be made available but even then they could only go so far if enough was brought to bear against them then the Phoenix could not continue indefinitely.

"Perhaps it is time we turned to our allies aboard the Defiant." Teyla suggested gaining a couple of wary looks. She leaned forwards "if they have technology that can remove us from this place, perhaps we should trust them to help us move." She suggested the three Earthers didn't like the concept of trusting the Defiant with their ship's safety - especially considering these allies did not appear to be telling them the full truth about their past and time line.

"Doctor, coordinate with my people begin repairs to the hyper-drive. I will contact Captain Sisko and see what they can come up with. I want everyone to know that we do not let the Defiant personnel near anything that is classified top secret or higher - in other words anything I do not authorise." She ordered, the order would be passed to all the other members of her crew before any members of the Defiant came aboard. It was a risk but the last chance they had, if the Defiant crew couldn't help them move quicker than sixteen hours, before the next Dominion attack.


	8. Chapter 8

Eight

With Ward unwilling to wait sixteen hours in potentially hostile territory to install the parts manufactured by the Defiant's crew the only option was to turn to the Defiant crew for ideas. Fortunately Captain Sisko was confident that the Defiant had another option to assist the ship had positioned itself above the Phoenix; looking out the forward observation windows, Ward could see the small vessel floating above the larger Phoenix. She had expected a tow cable or a clamp system being deployed from the Defiant, but she couldn't see any openings or grapple mechanisms. She had a sneaking suspicion about what they might have; the next few minutes would prove her right or wrong.

From the centre of the Defiant ventral side, a beam projected over the Phoenix, enveloping its hull. Ward felt a small 'bump' as the beam snatched up her ship, moments later the helm reported they had no control over their course; the Defiant was in control. 'I hope this is the right thing to do' Ward thought as the Defiant began to accelerate although not beyond the light speed barrier it was still considerably more than the Phoenix was capable of.

Information from the Defiant's crew suggested the Phoenix should put all available power to their inertial compensators to give the crew full protection from the effects of the Defiant's faster than light travel method. When ready the two ships jumped from a rather sedate sub-light cruising speed to what the Defiant's crew called warp four-point-two; the Phoenix's sensors indicated that both ships were travelling many times the speed of light, and according to the Defiant's crew, it could go many times faster than their current speed, but it would be unsafe for the Defiant to push its engines while towing a vessel as large as the Phoenix.

For the next twenty-two hours, the Defiant towed the Phoenix toward the wormhole that would lead to the smaller ship's home base a space station named Deep Space Nine. Meanwhile the Phoenix's Asgard designed sensors were picking up masses of data that could prove useful, it was far too much for the crew to process immediately but enough that it would keep the scientists on Earth busy for years, if they got back. With repairs completed while under tow Doctor McKay and the engineer on the Phoenix were convinced that the hyperdrive was ready for testing; for that, the Defiant had to cut its leash and allow the vessel to fly at its own pace.

'Time to see if they hold to their type of the bargain' Ward thought, looking at the main screen, right as Sisko's face appeared. "Captain Sisko, our engines are ready to be taken back on-line, if you can slow to sub-light speeds we can make our own way from here in."

"Understood." Sisko said immediately without hesitation "we'll slow to impulse, then cut you loose." Sisko said. Moments later, the Defiant dropped out of warp, before deactivating the tractor beam moving almost lazily to the port side of the Phoenix clearing its path. "From what you've told us, your faster-than-light travel uses a different type of subspace, so we won't be able to guide you." Sisko glanced down at the forward console where Dax was sitting on the Defiant's bridge.

"We're transmitting rendezvous coordinates, where we'll meet with you in just over a day... if that is acceptable?" Ward was trying to stop herself from showing how surprised she was; the Defiant's crew may have been untruthful with their history, but they seemed to be willing to help them get away from the Dominion's space. 'That has to count for something,' Ward thought.

"Very acceptable," Ward said, glancing at Major Hayden; he nodded once they received the rendezvous coordinates. "Thank you, Captain." The communication channel cut while the Defiant moved off to an acceptable distance. If everything went well, they would be making their travel times from now on.

"Major, set a course for the rendezvous coordinates the Defiant sent us." Turning back towards the main windows, she give the next set of orders. "Engineering, activate hyperspace engines and take us to hyperspeed."

The Phoenix banked to port then accelerated towards a rapidly forming green-white "cloud" of energy, disappearing into a hyperspace window. Ward had briefly considered bypassing the coordinates and travel directly to Earth to find out what was going on for themselves; unfortunately, they had no idea what they would find, nor did they know if they'd even be welcome. There was an old saying that Ward found especially appropriate: 'Stick with what you know'; she planned to follow that course of action and head for the coordinates the Defiant had sent them, at least for now.

"While we're alone, I want constant battle drills, in case there is a surprise at the coordinates. These people could try a fast one when we least expect it," Ward said. They were still in potentially hostile territory and anything could happen at anytime. Until they got home, Ward wanted her people on alert. The short trip to the rendezvous coordinates was uneventful; even at half power, the Phoenix's Naqudah engines were more than capable of getting them to their destination faster than the Defiant could hope to. As the ship dropped to normal space, the sensors detected nothing but a concentration of some unidentifiable particle, nearly two million kilometres from where they arrived. Suddenly, the long range sensors detected nine vessels closing on their location; none were the Defiant... and all matched the previously encountered Dominion craft.

'So we've been betrayed?' Ward thought, quietly reviewing the reports. The Defiant should have been within about a day's travel of these coordinates, but it was nowhere on the sensors. Instead, there were nine hostile craft closing on their position, meaning that the Defiant had sent them in the wrong direction, set them up to fail, or there had been a navigation problem. None of that comforted Ward.

"Set a course for Earth. We're not waiting to be cornered," Ward ordered; she'd had enough of being screwed by fate.

"Local particle count is interfering with the hyperdrive. We can't open a hyperspace window within a thirty million kilometre area," Hayden reported quickly. Ward did the calculations in her head - the Dominion craft would be well within range by then.

"Engage sub-light engines, maximum velocity. Get us away from those particles and bring all stations to combat readiness. Looks like we'll have to fight our way out of here." She snapped off orders while cursing herself for trusting the Defiant and her crew after they had so blatantly lied about their past. Less than five minutes later, the Jem'Hadar Attack Ships surrounded the Phoenix. Like the previous encounter, the Dominion warships were trying to engage them with the forward Polaron Beams. Looking at the displays on Major Craig's console, Ward could see that the nine beams were slowly becoming a problem even for the Phoenix's fully powered shields she couldn't allow them to "peck" away at them too long. Fortunately the sheilds were not the only thing at strength now.

"Fire the Asgard Beams at any target." She calmly ordered. "If we disable them follow up with a volley from the forward railgun battery and a pair of Mark VIII Nukes. But keep our fighters inside" She'd read the reports from their last engagement: the fighters were nothing more than a nuisance to these craft. While the nukes were more effective, they were too slow to hit the enemy ships while they were manoeuvring. Perhaps once their shields were down and engines were disabled, the nukes could be brought to bear on the Dominion warships.

Though the Phoenix was surrounded, the Dominion ships didn't get too close, allowing the ship to manoeuvre and move clear of the area. The Asgard Beams fired, the room's lights dimmed slightly as energy was fed into the guns; the beams crossed the gap between the ships hitting the Dominion vessel punching straight through the shields the first tore across the shields in a bright flash while the second tore through the armour punching through the centre of the craft destroying it in a short ball of flame. A second craft moved into the Phoenix's path, the Phoenix's weapons lashed out again but this time the Asgard beams only scored a glancing blow, taking down the shields and ripping armour off the left nacelle and it's housing. Moments later the ship began to spin out of control as the nacelle tore off the ship spun out-of-control at the Phoenix.

"Target railguns and missiles on that vessel," Ward ordered upon seeing the vessel close in on the Phoenix. The railguns tore into the unprotected hull, breaching numerous compartments, but the vessel was closing too fast for the small calibre guns to really be effective. To make things worse, she had ordered nukes loaded into the missile tubes and they couldn't be used at this range without damaging the Phoenix. With weapons unable to stop the spinning craft, Ward did the only thing she could, and hit the intercom button.

"Brace for impact!" she shouted as the vessel struck the Phoenix's forward shields. People all over the Phoenix were thrown to the deck by the kinetic energy of the strike. The force of the impact was enough to bring down the Phoenix's shields and stall the ship's forward momentum. Suddenly venerable, within moments, three shimmering, swirling patterns appeared in front of the command crew immediately the crew reacted to the boarding party.

Ward could see three six foot plus gray skinned reptilian humanoids, with bone fragments on the ridge of their noses and around the rim of their lower jaws. All three wore black combat suits. There was what appeared to be a plastic tube that fed some sort of white liquid from the left side of their chests to their lower neck. In their hands were short, submachine gun type weapons, with a clear barrel and under-arm hollow stock. Its odd features, and most notably the lack of a hole at the end of the barrel, indicated it to be an energy weapon, of some sort.

"Intruder alert on the bridge!" Ward yelled as she reached for her sidearm, an M9 pistol, which though old was in widespread use by the US Air force. Majors Craig and Hayden followed suit, but one warrior raised his weapon and fired. A blue-white pulse of energy caught Major Craig in the side, killing her almost instantly. As the young major fell from her console Ward ignored her, they would have time to morn later, raising her pistol and firing at the warrior, emptying the nine shot magazine into the warrior before it fell. Hayden followed suit with the second one, leaving one survivor charging forward at the pair as both began to reload their sidearms. Suddenly, the distinctive sound of a P90 going full auto came from behind them. None other than Colonel Sheppard stepped onto the bridge his weapon raised, leaving dozens of bullet casings in the corridor behind him, as the warrior fell to the floor. Sheppard scanned the bridge, looking for more alien soldiers before speaking, while Ward dropped checked on Craig, confirming her worst fears she had been dead before she hit the ground.

"What's our status?" Sheppard inquired as Hayden checked the various read outs on his console.

"I'm picking up over a hundred alien life signs on board. Shields are back up; the secondary generators kicked in automatically but we're a sitting duck." He reported as the ship was hit by several more enemy beams "that impact cut out momentum to zero." Hayden focused on the screen, trying to avoid glancing at the body of his dead colleague.

"Understood. Get us moving again we don't need more of them coming aboard!" Sheppard tried to reassure the shaken major as the ship rocked from another hit. "I've got work to do," he said as he tapped his ear piece. "Ronon, Teyla, McKay... do you read?"

"Sheppard! We have engaged several alien soldiers in the mess hall. We need Marine back-up!" Teyla was the first to reply, shouting over the roar of P90 and M4 fire. It was lucky that someone was armed down there or it would likely have been a bloodbath.

"We have got some in the training rooms too. We can hold them here," Ronon said. From what Sheppard could hear, Ronon was engaged in hand-to-hand combat of some sort and there was a cacophony of energy weapon and automatic weapon fire in the background.

"Sheppard, I've sealed off engineering and we're routing more power to shields from the main guns. We can cut off any reinforcements they might have if you can kill the ones that are left aboard." McKay reported, causing Sheppard to grimace.

"Can't you beam some of them into space?" Sheppard quickly asked, trying to keep McKay . "Or seal them in a compartment and vent the atmosphere?"

"Not without taking more power from the main guns and a few other important systems like shields." McKay pointed out "To make it worse most of the enemy troops happen to be in compartments with some of our people in them I don't think the Colonel wants me killing her crew." Sheppard quietly cursed as he spun to face Ward.

"Seal off the bridge and any area that the aliens haven't gotten to. I'll send up a squad of marines to reinforce you. Keep the rest of those ships off us." He darted towards the exit, shouting,

"Teyla, I'm heading for your position!" In the corridor were the two aliens he'd killed before entering the bridge and a dead marine; Sheppard ignored the bodies, knowing that unless the enemy soldiers were eliminated, the crew of the Phoenix was in grave danger. At the end of the corridor, he entered an elevator to the lower levels and punched the button for the mess hall deck.

Exiting two decks down, Sheppard discovered a scene of total chaos. In the corridor, seemingly identical alien warriors and marines fought with weapons or in brutal hand-to-hand combat. In the hand-to-hand battles, the marines didn't have a chance, as the alien soldiers were stronger than most of the marines, faster and more prepared. Sheppard quickly tore an alien from one pinned marine and, at point blank range, pumped the few remaining rounds in his magazine into the alien dropping him. As he turned and began replacing his P90's expended magazine, a second alien charged at him with a long handled blade in his hands. With no time to turn, Sheppard slapped his gun's magazine into place and quickly brought the P90 to his shoulder, right as roar of an automatic shotgun cut through the air behind him, as two high explosive rounds slammed into the warrior putting him down. Looking over, Sheppard saw Teyla standing defiantly with bloody AA12 automatic shot gun the left hand side of her face was covered in blood from what looked like a nasty cut.

"Thanks" Sheppard said before firing a burst from his P-90 into another alien's head, quickly dropping it. "How are we doing?" He looked around, and from what he could see, it appeared that the aliens were retreating from the area, leaving the dead behind.

"Six dead crewmen, as soon as they" she said, pointing at the dead aliens, "came through the door. We have killed at least double that number and they still come. They appear to have no care for their own life or safety."

"Great. Let's find Ronon and McKay and hope the Ward can get us the hell out of here," Sheppard muttered as he and Teyla moved through the ship, finding Phoenix crew, marines, and aliens all over the ship's corridors. Upon reaching the training rooms, they found Ronon and two badly injured Marines slumped against a bulkhead, surrounded by almost twenty dead alien troopers and four dead marines. The massive amounts of bullet casings attested the intensity of the battle in the room.

"You alright buddy?" Sheppard asked looking at Ronon, who was breathing heavily and coated with sweat. He stared vacantly at the bulkhead across the room, exhausted by fighting off the alien invaders.

"Yeah, these guys are not easy to kill and they don't give up easy." Ronon finally looked at Sheppard, before tilting his head in the direction of the two surviving marines. "These guys need help. Bleeding made by these alien guns" he raised one of the alien weapons "can't be stopped."

"Alright, lets get you guys to the med-bay," Sheppard said, hauling Ronon to his feet. Together, Teyla, Sheppard, and Ronon grabbed the two marines and began the trek to the med-bay.

"Hopefully, Rodney can look after himself and get us out of this mess."

In the dark depths of space, the Phoenix was surrounded by six Dominion craft, while the fighting on board caused confusion, death and damage to both the engines and weapons. The Phoenix was a sitting duck; for now its shields were still holding off the Dominion's weapons, but under constant bombardment, the shields would eventually fail. On the bridge, Tanya Ward contemplated the situation at hand: if the shields failed more aliens would beam aboard and her crew couldn't survive a second wave of alien attackers... if they were lucky enough to survive this round of invaders.


	9. Chapter 9

Nine

Aboard her command ship Natalya smiled as she stood on the bridge of her command ship looking at the sensor image ahead of her. Hours before, the Phoenix had disappeared in a flash of light and became undetectable to Dominion sensors. Soon after, the Defiant cloaked and it too was gone; she had thought the Federation let the new ship and its technology slip through their fingers, but they were more intelligent than she had thought. 'This failure would be the end of me,' she thought selfishly. 'The Dominion generally does not take kindly to failure - especially one with this much promise.'

Those thoughts did not last long; nine minutes ago, the Phoenix had re-emerged on this side of the anomaly that linked Dominion space to the empires of the Alpha Quadrant exactly where Natalya had hoped near the wormhole. Surprisingly, the ship didn't enter into the anomaly and seek refuge on the other side. If it had, Natalya would've been unable to do anything; the Founders had ordered no Jem'Hadar craft cross the anomaly without their express permission. However, the Phoenix began manoeuvring away from the anomaly and back towards open space - a perfect position for the Jem'Hadar to attack.

Now, unlike their first encounter, Natalya was ready for the Phoenix. All nine ships under her command positioned themselves around the Phoenix; unlike the last encounter, no small craft launched from the Phoenix, the Attack Ship's sensors did detect an energy build up at the front of the craft – more than likely the plasma beam weapons they had encountered the first time. Considering their effectiveness the first time round Natalya knew the beams could do damage, but they lacked the power to be considered threatening. 'By the time they are a threat, they will be destroyed or captured,' Natalya thought with a smile.

"First, order a full assault. I want their shields down and boarding parties from all ships ready. I want that ship at our mercy as quickly as possible. There's no telling if the Defiant will show up again." She warned; they could not run the risk of losing the ship for a second time.

The First nodded upon receiving his orders; all nine Jem'Hadar craft fired their forward weapons systems. The Phoenix's shields rippled from the hits however they held firm 'Stronger than before?' Natalya wondered.

"The vessel is firing on AV-889," the Second reported; AV-889 was just off their starboard wing. Natalya looked through her eye-piece as the Phoenix lashed out with its plasma beam weapons again. Two of the weapons struck AV-889's shields, engulfing the ship in an oval of light before the hull was penetrated. "AV-889 reports full shield loss and a hull breach!" The Second shouted the warning. Moments later it was too late the Attack Craft exploded in a ball of flame destroying the Dominion craft.

"AV-889 has been destroyed," the Second reported without any sort of emotion in his voice. Natalya was shocked by what she had just witnessed - 'Those weapons had not been capable that before... how could they do so much damage now?' She began running the images back in her memory; Vorta were born with photographic memories, since the Founders had seen it necessary for them, two direct hits and one of her ships was gone.

"They are targeting us," the Second said in a matter of fact tone, in spite of what they had all just witnessed.

"Evasive manoeuvres! Get us out of their firing arc! Have all ships concentrate on the Phoenix... get their attention away from us!" The First ordered as a tinge of anger wormed its way into his voice He realized as Natalya had that their ship could not survive a direct hit. The Attack Ship began to turn sharply away from the Phoenix but it was too late. As the Phoenix's beams fired again, one beam hit the vessel full force tearing down the crafts shields, while the second grazed the hull. With no shields the beam cut over the upper areas of the ship burning through the hull the beam penetrated the Attack Craft's warp nacelle pylon shattering bulkheads, plasma conduits and control thrusters.

"Compensate for the damage!" The First screamed, but it was too late the ship's nacelle was virtually seperated from the vessel even Natalya could see the ship was doomed. The commander attempted to save his ship's life anyway as any good Jem'Hadar would do. "Turn us away from the Phoenix!" Though it was in a Jem'Hadar's duty to die for the Founders and the Dominion, and they were more than willing to sacrifice themselves for the cause, the Vorta had ordered them to safeguard her life and all the ships that accompanied them as they attempted to capture the Phoenix.

Despite his valiant effort, the helm operator could not compensate for the damage as the nacelle finally tore itself loose off the vessel. The ship continued to spin until it smashed into the forward edges of the Phoenix's shields. The Jem'Hadar Attack Ship's outer hull began crumpling almost immediately, leaving Natalya with a few seconds to shout "Computer, Command Emergency Beam Out!"

'Command Emergency Beam Out' was a command buried deep inside the main computers of all Jem'Hadar Attack Ships, intended to be used only by a Vorta or Founder. Natalya wasn't even sure if the Jem'Hadar were aware of the command, since they were only trained to perform maintenance on the computer systems, not program them. It was only to be used to safeguard individuals or information that were critical to whatever mission the ship was on, but it would safeguard her chain of command on another vessel and continue her quest to capture the Phoenix. The other Jem'Hadar Attack Ships would detect the transport and lower their shields to allow them aboard, it was risky and difficult to do in combat; there was no real guarantee it would work.

Moments later, Natalya and the five Jem'Hadar inside the command room disappeared, just as the room began to disintegrate from a warp core breach. Because the command had been made as the vessel was being destroyed the process was longer than normal transport. On the other side, Natalya and the four Jem'Hadar who had survived the transport emerged disorientated. Looking around, Natalya didn't recognize any of the equipment or even the room. Every Jem'Hadar Attack Ship was identical, with equipment that was standard on every ship. As she looked around, trying to figure out what had happened, she spotted writing on the side of a stack of boxes. As Natalya leaned closer to the stack, she could see it read, in English:

Black Combat/Utility Uniforms,

Atlantis Expedition,

All contents property of the United States Air Force and International Oversight Committee

Ever since the Federation had been encountered, and more specifically the humans that made up large portions of their crews, all Vorta clones had been genetically modified to understand spoken and written English, humanity's primary language, without a translator. Natalya knew what had happened: they had beamed aboard the Phoenix instead of another nearby Jem'Hadar craft; apparently, the explosion must have shut down the Phoenix's shields. Natalya could hear weapons fire from outside the room; she briefly analyzed the situation, then turned to the four remaining Jem'Hadar.

"Shroud yourselves and scout out the vessel. Act against the humans only if you can do so without being revealed... even if that means the death of other Jem'Hadar. We may be the Dominion's best hope for capturing this vessel. Do you understand?"

"Yes Vorta," they said in unison, each activating their personal shrouds and disappearing from sight. The personal shroud used by the Jem'Hadar was built into their genetic make-up; as long as the Ketracel white lasted, they could hide from the eyes of their enemies... unless they struck out at something or were touched.

The four Jem'Hadar warriors quietly exited from the room closing the door behind them. She hoped that they would last long enough to assist her, but if they were discovered, hopefully the defenders would think they were a simple boarding party.

"Excellent," she said, opening one of the boxes and pulling out a uniform. "Now I must hide myself... what better than in plain sight?" She said quietly, Natalya was in luck in more ways than one not only were there female uniforms present but Natalya's skin appeared like a Humans, unlike others of her race she lacked the blue pigmentation that coloured their skin. Her skin was a tanned colour, perfect cover as a human.

Five minutes later, she was changed into one of the human uniforms; it was a bit tight in areas, but would do. She carefully put her own clothing into the uniform box, covering it with several uniforms, and closed the box, trying to make it look unopened. Finally, before she left the room, she pulled her hair pin from her hair. She arranged it lightly, covering her very alien looking ears; to anyone outside, she would appear to be a young human female, the perfect cover for the expected human crew of the Phoenix. 'They did say they were from Earth after all,' Natalya thought.

Moving to the door, she listened carefully to what was going on outside; the Vorta had excellent hearing to make up for their poor eyesight. She could hear nothing from the other side of the door; it appeared the fighting had moved on. Opening the door, she found a dead Jem'Hadar and two dead humans; the Jem'Hadar was not one of her men, indicating a wholesale boarding was underway - perhaps she wouldn't have to hide long. In case they failed, she picked up a Jem'Hadar pistol and put it on her belt, just in case she needed a weapon. Suddenly, she heard five human heart beats moving towards her.

Putting on her best scared look, she aimed the Jem'Hadar pistol at the corner in front of her, just as three humans, two males and one female, came round the corner carrying two other injured human males. One a giant of a man raised a strange pistol type weapon at her.

"Don't shoot, I'm on your side!" Natalya screamed as she lowered the pistol, hoping the fake fear would persuade them. A wave of relief swept over her when the giant lowered his weapon.

"Sorry. You got a name crewman?" The other uninjured male asked. He was young and attractive for a human, with short dark hair; Natalya figured he was an officer of some sort.

"Natalya... crewman Natalya O'Brien," she said, recalling the first human name she could think of. The name was one of Captain Sisko's crewmen she hoped it was a common one.

"O'Brien, eh?" the man asked with a smirk- Natalya hoped she hadn't just blown her own cover. "Well, I guess you're everywhere." He pointed to the dead Jem'Hadar decorating the deck, before checking the corridor behind him, presumably for more trouble; Natalya could hear nothing in the immediate area. "What happened?"

"I hid," Natalya looked back into the room. "When I came out, I found them dead. This looks like an energy weapon of some sort." She raised the Jem'Hadar pistol, pointing the barrel at the deck.

"Good job. I'm Colonel John Sheppard, this is Ronon and Teyla" he said, introducing the other two standing humans. "We're heading for the med-bay with these crewmen, it'll be safe there." She nodded, relieved that her ruse had worked, at least for the time being. Though constant contact with these people could be bad, but turning away help would look suspicious, for now she would ride her luck. She moved around the mountain of a human called Ronon and helped him support one of the half dead humans; Natalya could see a wound made by a Jem'Hadar weapon and suppressed a smile. It looked like a full scale attack was underway; perhaps she wouldn't have to hide long, only time would tell.

The med-bay was a bit of a mess, with humans checking on other injured humans and dealing with wounds dealt by Jem'Hadar energy weapons and bladed weapons. Looking around the room, Natalya decided the technology seemed decidedly low-tech compared to the rest of the ship. There appeared to be few hand-held scanners like those seen on Federation ships, nor was there any similar medical equipment, though she had suspected as much. Natalya was completely sure that these humans were not from the Federation, though they did seem to be from Earth. 'The two were the same?' Natalya thought 'How could they be so different?' She'd have to study these people closely; something was still off in this equation, and she planned to find out what was going on.

Several medics rushed over and took the two injured marines, while Natalya and the others were pushed to the edge of the room by bustling doctors and nurses. Sheppard turned to her and asked, "Where are you stationed Natalya?"

"Engineering, engine mechanics with background in space anomaly research and faster-than-light theory research." Natalya explained, before adding, "Sir." She noticed sticking to the military protocol that appeared to be prevalent on this ship; another thing Federation ships appeared to be lax on.

"Sure that shouldn't be Doctor O'Brien?" Sheppard asked with a small smile as he glanced at the door. She could see that he was ready to move on.

"I never studied hard enough. It was always just a hobby I played with in San Francisco before being posted to the Phoenix." She hoped throwing in the name of an Earth city would help her fit in better. San Francisco was the only Earth city she really knew of; all Vorta knew it, since San Francisco was one of the most important cities of the Federation, on one of the most important worlds, and it was the location of Starfleet Command. Natalya had even heard that new batches of Jem'Hadar were being programmed with basic street maps of the city in preparation for the invasion of the planet.

"Well, I'm sure Doctor McKay could use your help," Teyla said, before turning to Sheppard. "Colonel, we are in the doctors' way here. We should move on."

"Let's get the rest of these aliens off this ship," Ronon growled; like Sheppard, he was constantly glancing at the exit. Natalya could tell that he was a warrior for sure and not like any human she had ever encountered; he was more like a Klingon in his demeanor.

"Right. We're going to head for engineering, so stick with us crewman. Rodney could use your help." Sheppard said as he checked the corridor. "Just stick behind us and don't fire unless we tell you to, or we're really in trouble." Natalya nodded, guessing that there really was no way to reply to that one.

"Let's go," he headed out the door, with Ronon and Teyla swiftly following. Natalya looked back into the room of injured humans, then also followed them. McKay might be the key to figuring out what had happened here and where the Phoenix had come from, and Natalya wanted to meet him - and if need be, kill him.


	10. Chapter 10

Ten

Captain Benjamin Sisko leaned back in his chair, carefully examining the Phoenix on the main viewscreen as the Defiant's tractor beam deactivated, a habit he had learned as an ensign under a captain who felt that relying totally on sensors was begging for trouble. Within seconds, the ship turned and sped into a cloud of energy, becoming invisible to the sensors. While the Defiant's sensors weren't as powerful as those on an explorer or science class vessel, the energy levels and speed variances that had been detected in the cloud astounded all the officers aboard the Defiant. Sisko looked over the information carefully, still not believing what he saw; energy output that was far beyond that of the largest Starfleet designed warp reactor and, more importantly, seemed to be totally controlled.

'If Starfleet could design an engine based off of that design and incorporate it into future designs... there would be no threat to Bajor, Earth or the rest of the Federation-reinforcements would on hand within hours... it would open the rest of the galaxy to exploration by Starfleet.' It was a dream, and experience told him that dreams rarely came true. Or when they did come true, they were ruined by unforeseen events, he could just see Temporal Investigations agents now you can't keep the ship because the past was more advanced than the future... Sisko shook himself out of reverie and turned to Dax, who was manning the helm. "Activate the cloak and set a course for the Wormhole, maximum warp." The normal white bridge lighting turned blue, alerting the crew that the cloak was online, while an imperceptible vibration signalled the activation of the warp drive. The crew carried on with their tasks, although the air was charged with suspense.

Sometime later, the Phoenix re-emerged on this side of the Bajoran Wormhole, proving that the Defiant's sensors had been right on the money regarding their estimates of the power of the Phoenix's engines the speeds she was capable of. The vessel was a ship of contradiction conventional nuclear weapons and railguns which had done nearly nothing to the Jem'Hadar craft however these were combined with powerful energy weapons. The ship was defended by powerful energy shields but its armour appeared to be far weaker than the Defiant, although that was yet to be tested. Now the Phoenix exhibited a powerful FTL drive and possessed advanced transport technology both more advanced than the Federation's counterparts.

The Dominion commander had obviously anticipated the plan to rendezvous near the Wormhole. Unfortunately, the Phoenix's crew either didn't detect the Wormhole or didn't understand what to do, since the vessel turned into the Dominion armada arranged behind them. Sisko mentally kicked himself for not telling Colonel Ward about the procedure for entering the Wormhole; it looked like they had never encountered anything like it. Outside of communication range and weapons range all the Defiant's crew could do was watch as the Jem'Hadar circled and attacked the Phoenix.

"Sisko to Engineering," the Captain said as data from the Defiant's sensors appeared on the viewscreen - one of the Jem'Hadar ships had been destroyed engaging the Phoenix, while another had collided with the shields. The Phoenix was dead in the water not moving; Sisko assumed it was being boarded by Jem'Hadar. He had seen what the Jem'Hadar could do in close quarters: they would take no prisoners, killing every single member of the crew, even people that could help them operate or repair the Phoenix's damaged systems. It certainly didn't make sense to Sisko, but he figured that the Dominion expected the Phoenix to have similar computer interfaces or that manuals would be lying around.

"O'Brien here, Captain." Ever since the Defiant had gone to maximum speed, O'Brien had been busy monitoring systems from Main Engineering. It was of critical importance that everything ran smoothly, which wasn't easy, since it was massively overpowered for her size; designed to fight the Borg, Starfleet had designed a ship that could engage a target far bigger than itself and win. Which meant that the designers felt more power was needed, so they give it engines that nearly tore the ship apart; overall Sisko felt the Defiant could use a slight reduction of power and refinement of other systems.

"Chief, the Phoenix is under attack by the Dominion. I need as much power as you can give me."

"Captain, the engines are already pushing 90% of their total power. If I push the engines much further, we won't be any help to the Phoenix when we get there." O'Brien complained; the man loved the ship almost as much as Sisko did. When Sisko had taken the Defiant to DS9 it was O'Brien, and his engineers, that had brought the ship under control and turned her from a potential time bomb into a working starship capable of serving Starfleet beyond the 'escort' role that the designers had intended her for.

"Understood Chief. Do what you can. Sisko out." Leaning back in his chair, he could see that the Dominion ships were still orbiting the Phoenix. From the energy levels being detected, they were still fighting, which gave Sisko reason to hope that the Phoenix had restored its shields and could hold out until the Defaint arrived.

"Warp 9.53," Dax said, quietly noting a 0.03 raise in speed. Moments later, the ship physically shuddered, a sign that they had just set a new speed record for a Defiant-class starship and that this particular vessel did not like setting speed records. The vessel shuddered again, causing the senior officers to look around, almost as if they expected the Defiant to come apart at the seams. 'She wasn't designed to be a sprinter,' Sisko thought wryly.

"Thank you O'Brien," Sisko whispered. "Dax, what's our ETA to the Phoenix's position?"

"Fourteen minutes," the Trill Lt. Commander answered, as the Defiant shuddered again. "Warp 9.55" Dax announced as the speed increased again this time it was Sisko's turn to shudder, thinking of the repair list the engineers would face in the morning.

"Understood." He turned to his Klingon tactical officer. "Mr Worf, drop the cloak at these energy levels I'm sure the Dominion can detect us already." Worf nodded as he tapped a couple of buttons, dropping the cloak that hid it from most sensors. The lighting changed from overwhelmingly blue to almost black with red highlights, while a klaxon rang out, alerting the crew that the ship was readying for battle. "Charging phasers and arming all quantum torpedoes" the Klingon announced taking the initative.

"Have the first salvo armed with proximity sensors fire as soon as we're in weapons range. Loud and bright is better than accurate we want their attention." The Klingon nodded, but Sisko could see a small smile on the Klingon's face- he was baring his forward teeth as he tapped various buttons and prepared the weapons systems. Sisko knew that Klingons, even reserved ones like Worf, lived for these kind of odds.

Secure in the knowledge that Worf could to deal with the Jem'Hadar, Sisko turned to Major Kira, who was on the other side of the bridge, at communications and operations. "Major, I want you to contact the Phoenix as soon as possible. Find out what their status and their current capabilities are. Prepare a tractor beam, targeting the Phoenix." Kira looked at him in confusion, forcing Sisko to explain his plan.

"If their engines are down and we can't take out the Jem'Hadar, we may have to tow the Phoenix through the Wormhole." He turned back to the viewscreen as the Defiant shuddered again. "Major, see if you can find out the Phoenix's shield frequency. It would make this a lot easier."

"It is unlikely that they will give such information while under attack," Worf muttered as he finished preparing the weapons.

"Don't be so much of a pessimist," Dax called out as the Defiant give a final shudder before dropping out of warp. Moments later Worf fired the first pair of quantum torpedoes, which homed in on a far off Dominion craft.

On the Phoenix, Sheppard and his team, along with their tag along companion, Natalya, trekked through the ship, steadily moving towards engineering, killing Jem'Hadar after Jem'Hadar along the way. Sheppard had killed at least a dozen and wondered exactly how many more were still alive and roaming around the ship. He noticed that Natalya hadn't made a single move for her weapon since they had first met nor was she being particularly quiet about her movements.

"So, Natalya, are you from the Chinatown or Manhattan region of San Francisco?" He asked quietly as they moved; he noticed that she slowed down when he asked the question.

"I'm from all over the city. My parents moved around a lot. Business stuff. I mainly stayed on the islands in the bay - we were part owners of a shipping company." She answered, racking her brain for facts about San Francisco. There wasn't much that came to mind, forcing her to improvise she knew it was on the coast which was a start.

"Really?" Sheppard said as he turned a corner and proceeded down another corridor. Suddenly, the Phoenix rocked as something hit the shields - either more concentrated weapons fire or an explosion of some sort. "I had a buddy of mine in the marines that came from Rhode Island in the bay. Were you from there?" He asked, watching her over his shoulder. He noticed both Ronon and Teyla were totally confused by his questioning her in a combat situation. He really wanted to tell them what he suspected, but the best he could do was tip his head at Natalya and shake his head. He had no idea if they got the message, but he couldn't take the risk of even whispering; the SGC had run into people who had super hearing before, and the very action of whispering was suspicious. He didn't want to tip her off to his suspicions.

"No, I was from one of the other islands." She silently cursed the fact she knew so little about the islands in the city. Natalya looked at Sheppard quizzically, appearing to be confused by his questions. "We didn't mix with military types... too much trouble for my family," she said with a slight smile, while Sheppard smirked and focused his attention on the door at the end of the corridor.

"Roger that," he whispered as they went down the corridor. Natalya would have to keep a close eye on him; she figured that he suspected that she wasn't part of the crew, though his companions seemed to be none the wiser.

"Ronon, Teyla, check that door and find McKay. I'll cover. Natalya stay close and quiet... never know if there are more of those aliens around." Sheppard scanned the corridor as Ronon and Teyla moved forward. Natalya smirked as she thought, 'If only he knew how close the Jem'Hadar were. ' One of the soldiers from her ship was close to her, still shrouded and ready to strike, the perfect silent bodyguard.

On the bridge, the Phoenix's command staff were forced to deal with the six remaining attack ships. Making things slightly better was the fact that the Defiant had arrived and made its presence felt, by destroying one of the attacking ships with a pair of plasma torpedoes, which appeared to be creating explosions created by zero-point energy, considering Atlantis was powered by Zero-Point Modules and these people had created weapons with that Technology Ward was more than a little impressed. Even as Ward slipped into the late Major Craig's seat and begun checking the status of her ship she could see the Defiant was engaging further ships with its torpedoes.

"Colonel, communication from the Defiant they are asking for our shield frequencies. They say they can assist us in getting out of the area," Major Hayden reported glancing over as the Defiant engaged several of the enemy craft off the Phoenix's bow, distracting them and reducing the burden on the Phoenix's shields. Ward grimly stared out the window at the Defiant, mentally tallying up reason for and against trusting Sisko and his crew.

"Tell them that we won't be transmitting any of that data to them. Especially not in battle," Ward snapped. "We still have active engines; show us the path we'll fly out of here."

"We've got a course, Colonel! Back the way we came," Hayden reported, right before the Phoenix got hit by several Poloron beams. "Shields are down to 42%! We can't take much more of this!"

"Understood." Ward paused for a moment, trying to figure out what was Sisko's plan. She was convinced that the Defiant got them in this mess, but it was also the second time they had come to the Phoenix's rescue. "Reverse our course along the Defiant's projected course." She said making a decision.

"Transfer power from the Asgard beams to the shields even if it means shutting them down. Continuous use of the Mark VIII nuclear missiles to back up the railguns." They had held back using the nuclear weapons the Dominion Ships were far too small and too agile for them to be hit but the shielding wasn't going to hold for much longer... and Ward wanted to give these Dominion ships some nice parting gifts.

Even arriving late in the battle the Defiant's combination of pulse laser and quantum torpedoes coupled by the ship's mobility had led to the rapid destruction of two Jem'Hadar attack ships. They had successfully reduced the numbers to five-against-two, but the Phoenix's crew was still unwilling to share their shield frequencies, however they weren't targeting them and were following the course that the Defiant had sent over. Sisko could understand where they were coming from, especially since he had inadvertently set them up for the ambush. The Defiant continued to manoeuvre barrel rolling through the Dominion formation, forcing the Jem'Hadar craft to split up; three were still attacking the Phoenix, while the other two were pursuing the Defiant. Unlike the last time, the Dominion considered them a threat and were engaging them with extreme prejudice.

"Captain, port shields down to 72%," Worf reported as Dax rapidly changed course putting the Defiant into a downward spiral, moving away from their pursuers and towards the vessels attacking the Phoenix. Sisko's orders had been quite specific they were to cover the Phoenix's retreat and allow the ship to escape the Jem'Hadar.

"Keep firing." He ordered reinforing his original commands "we need to buy the Phoenix a little more time," Sisko said watching as the Phoenix approached the mouth of the wormhole. He hoped that the ship could withstand the punishment; the fact that it was designed for heavy combat was of little comfort.

The Phoenix launched two missiles from the amidships VLS tubes, which targeted the two of the Jem'Hadar Attack Ships that continued to harass the Phoenix. One of the missiles was blown to pieces by the lead Attack Ship its forward weapons acting as point defence, while the second got past the combined defensive fire of the trio and slammed into the forward shields of the vessel.

The resulting explosion was massive, far greater than any of the other nukes the Phoenix had employed thus far; the forward shields of the Dominion craft visibly flared, then failed. Aboard the Defiant, Sisko could see railgun salvos from the Phoenix pass through the hole in the shield and tear holes in the Dominion ship's armour. The vessel turned, bringing its starboard shields to bear, before heading away from the Phoenix. Looking at his screens Sisko could see the Jem'Hadar craft slowly begin to spin out of control as the damage and radiation overwhelmed the crew and the ship's systems. The other Dominion vessels continued to fire on the Phoenix, causing the shields to ripple from the repeated hits.

"Target forward phasers on those ships, Mr Worf. Clear the Phoenix's escape vector," Sisko ordered as Dax kept the Defiant flying steady. Worf let loose a volley of precision pulse phaser fire that tore into the Jem'Hadar Attack Ship, knocking out their shields and obliterating the ships before it could get near the wormhole entrance, giving both ships a clear path to the wormhole. The Phoenix entered first, followed closely by the Defiant, escaping the Gamma Quadrant and heading to the Alpha Quadrant, where the safe port of Deep Space Nine was waiting for them.

"Ma'am, we're entering the area of the particles again," the Phoenix's helm officer stated.

Colonel Tanya Ward looked at screen, trying to seem like she was a pillar of calm in the storm, and she was entirely sure of herself. Inside though, she was metaphysically biting her teeth. This was it; either the Defiant crew were lying and something nasty was about to be done to them, or they were going to be saved. Any moment now . . . "Colonel . . ." the another officer at the back of the bridge said, 'quite a moment to speak up , she thought looking at him from the corner of her eyes. "Something's happening . . ."

She was about to ask him for a clarification, when the view out the windows showed the fabric of space and time bursting open in a magnificent spectacle of light . . . and a lot of physical things she would never be able to understand. The violent display of blue, white, and gold-like energy settled into a circular formation, blue on the outside, growing ever less blue and more white toward the centre. There was a distinct sensation that it was deeper in the middle.

"Holy father," Ward muttered with astonishment, looking at it with wide eyes. It was beautiful. There came similar comments from the others Tanya was not religious by any sense, she'd seen plenty in the military and life to prove to her there was not someone looking down over them, but it seemed like heaven had opened ahead of them.

"It's a wormhole, ma'am," the science officer said.

"A wormhole? Like a Stargate?" She asked for a moment there had been no visible ring to keep it stable she didn't understand the Stargate technology but this... this was something else. "Get us in there," Ward ordered, quite unnecessarily. She was relieved; she had made the right choice - at least for now. The Phoenix entered the wormhole, and suddenly all words escaped her.

The place the ship had entered seemed to be a path of some sort however that was the barest of descriptions. Energy was everywhere, blue strings, white strings, flashes. Odd nexuses, nexii? Ward didn't know the plural form of the word. These vertices where different energy strings and arcs came together. They moved passed them, and even through them, yet they never really passed through them, as if they weren't really there. She shook her head clear - it felt if she tried to take it all in, she'd go insane. Like she was looking at some fundamental truth about, or even the face of the universe or God, that no human was ready to handle yet, and it'd tear her mind apart if she tried. Back to business.

Odd, she'd never gone through a Stargate, a device to generate wormholes, but she had read about it, and no one had ever reported anything this majestic - divine even. Wormhole? "Why didn't we detect the emissions were that of a wormhole?" Ward asked. They had a lot of experiance with Stargate created wormholes and could even detect them somewhat - but this wormhole had been emitting particles and they had failed to recognize it for what it was.

"Uh . . ." The science officer looked at his console, to the screen, back, and then to the captain, "Ask Doctor McKay later?" he tried pitifully. Ward couldn't blame him, this was above his pay grade, maybe McKay would have an answer for this if Sheppard could save the Doctor and eliminate the rest of the Jem'Hadar.


	11. Chapter 11

Eleven

As the battle raged in the space around the Phoenix another raged aboard the ship "Sheppard, we're clear!" Ronon shouted down the corridor as two more Jem'Hadar fell. Sheppard looked over his shoulder and nodded to Natalya, who practically sprinted past Ronon into engineering.

"Sheppard move!" Ronon called out as he fired his pistol at something behind the Colonel. Sheppard looked back down the corridor and saw a pair of alien warriors charge down the corridor, firing at him as they charged.

Sheppard sprayed the corridor with P90 fire as he ran down the corridor into the engineering control room, as Ronon gunned them down with a hail of fire from his pulse pistol. 'I wish I could find a gun like that' Sheppard thought for the millionth time since meeting Ronon, unfortunately the gun seemed to be a one of a kind - they only one they had ever found operational - something Sheppard knew Ronon secretly prided himself on. At the centre of the room stood McKay, P90 locked and loaded, aiming down the empty corridor.

"Teyla, seal the door," Sheppard ordered as he walked up to McKay. "Rodney, how are we doing?" Sheppard asked as the doctor blinked in surprise. Behind them, Teyla locked the hatch controls, ensuring that no one could get through without blasting it.

"I'm fine... shields are holding. We got clear of those particles but we're still getting pounded by those Dominion ships, any ideas why we havent moved?" Rodney said, putting his weapon on top of a bank of consoles as he peered at some displays.

"How should I know Rodney, I'm not flying this ship," Sheppard let his irritation flow into his voice as he surveyed the room. McKay had sealed off engineering, locking himself in and keeping the invaders out. In fact, it was probably the cleanest looking room on the whole ship, considering that there were people dying everywhere else. In a corner of the room, Sheppard thought he saw something in the shadows, but before he could get a closer look, McKay spoke up again.

"The Defiant's arrived, it's firing on the Dominion Ships." McKay announced triumphantly as if he had made it happen then he noticed their additional member. "And who's this?" McKay said, staring straight at Natalya, who shifted uncomfortably "I don't think we've been introduced? I'm McKay, Rodney McKay, Dr Rodney McKay." He began with a small smile as Sheppard slowly slipped back behind her.

"This is Natalya O'Brien, Phoenix crewmember, expert in everything except that of intrusion and spying." Sheppard smoothly drew his M1911 sidearm, flipped it so he could use the barrel as a handle, he quickly hit Natalya on the back of the head with the grip's base plate producing an audible "crack". She immediately hit the deck and crumpled into an unconscious heap.

"What the hell?" McKay looked totally bewildered grabbing for his P90 as Teyla and Ronon walked up to where Natalya laid.

"How long did you suspect her?" Teyla asked as she crouched to get a closer look at the unconscious female. A quick brush of Natalya's hair revealed her alien ears.

"From the moment we met," Sheppard explained. "For starters I didn't recoignize her and this isn't the biggest ship in the galaxy also her uniform didn't have a name on it. It's like she pulled it out of a box and figured that would fool us."

"So that's why you were questioning her," Ronon muttered as he got a good look at her alien features. "I guess these guys don't know too much about Earth."

"They know about San Francisco, just not very well," Sheppard replied with a small smirk. "McKay, what's going on out there?"

"There's a rise in particle count around the ship... it looks like we're going back the way we came," McKay said in disbelief. Unbeknownst to them, the ship was entering the Wormhole. "That doesn't make any sense!"

"Now what are we going to do with her?" Teyla asked as McKay muttered something under breath.

"I have an idea" Ronon said quietly flicking his pistol around his finger like an ancient gunslinger.

"You will do nothing with the Vorta!" a male voice shouted out of no where. Suddenly, an alien charged out of the dark corner; his body shimmered then becoming solid as he moved. He instantly knocked Ronon out of the way with a single swipe of his arm before the big man or the others could react he then leapt forward at Sheppard and plunged his blade into Sheppard's chest as the Colonel turned to face him.

For John Sheppard, time slowed down and sound became distant, almost imperceptible. As he slowly fell to the deck he was aware of Ronon and Teyla firing at the alien, while a cold sensation spread all over his body. Slowly everything went black as his body was engulfed in a cold, silent abyss...

Within moments John Sheppard woke to a throbbing, beating sound all around him... foom... foom... foom... almost like a strong and steady heart beat. Around him was nothing but white closing his eyes he tried to remember what had happened there was a scream behind him in engineering, he turned and then saw an alien stab him in the gut with a long, one handed blade. After that everything was a blur... he remembered weapons fire but nothing else. His eyes darted open, looking downwards - there was no blade in his chest and no pain. And there was no P90 strapped to his chest, no sidearm, no knife. Whoever had patched him up had taken his weapons and equipment.

"Ronon! Teyla! McKay!" His shouts faded into the emptiness with no reply... not even an echo. "What the hell is going on here?" He shouted frustrated again there was no answer. He reached to his left ear and found his earpiece communicator still in place.

"Sheppard to Ward." All he got was an earful of nothing. "Sheppard to anyone on the bridge, respond" Growing increasingly frustrated, he decided to give the radio one last try. "Sheppard to anyone on this frequency respond." He flung the headset away after getting more silence. "What the Hell is going on here? Someone answer me...!"

Walking around in a tight circle, Sheppard finally realized what may be going on, the unthinkable? "If I'm dead shouldn't I be judged or something?" He shouted into the abyss; as usual, all he got was silence. Sheppard wasn't used to being ignored or out of the loop, which irritated him, almost as much as being toyed with. "If you don't mind, I'd like to leave? I've got plans for the weekend!"

"He does not understand," Rodney McKay said in a dull monotone. Sheppard spun around and found that the white endless abyss changed to the Phoenix engine room.

"Rodney!?" Sheppard asked looking at what appeared to be his friend and fellow team member; somehow, Sheppard couldn't get rid of the feeling that something wasn't right. "That was a neat trick. Mind telling me how you did it?" Sheppard stepped forward and found himself in Atlantis' control room.

"He has potential," Elizabeth Weir said off to his left, by one of the control consoles that dominated the room. McKay leaned on a console, looking straight ahead, neither at Sheppard, nor away from him.

"Elizabeth?" He examined her carefully; she had been the original commander of the Atlantis expedition and was killed just over a year ago in a conflict with a species known as the Replicators. "How did I get here? How did you get here?"

"He does not understand," the McKay figure said, stating the brutally obvious. Sheppard scowled as he faced 'McKay.'

"Of course I don't! Would you care to enlighten me?"

"He speaks the words but does not understand them," said someone behind him. Sheppard turned and found he was standing with Ronon on the battle torn landscape of his homeworld of Sateda.

"Ronon?" Sheppard asked, looking at the mountain of a man; glancing over his shoulder, Sheppard noticed McKay and Weir were standing there, looking straight forward, utterly silent and unmoving. "Does someone want to explain to me what is going on?" He looked at each on of them, waiting for an answer, and as he expected, he didn't get one. 'This more irritating than being left alone' Sheppard thought.

"He does not belong here," Teyla's voice came over Sheppard's shoulder. Sheppard was ready for the scenery change this time; he found Teyla sitting at a fire, toying with a small stick. Off to the side was her newly born son, Torren, in his carry basket. He wondered why whoever he was talking to kept using the forms of his friends, instead of showing themselves; it was almost like they were afraid he would go insane if they showed their true form. Or they really enjoyed messing with people's heads.

"He has great potential," Weir said again, exacerbating Sheppard's frustration.

"Quit saying that!" He snapped "and no, I don't belong here." Sheppard sat beside Teyla, while the others kept standing around. "I belong back on the Phoenix, with the others." Suddenly, Sheppard found himself at the helm of the Phoenix, while the others stood around him. "This isn't what I meant!" Sheppard shouted, getting out of the chair and looking at each one them.

"He does not understand," McKay said again, causing Sheppard to face palm. A boiling rage was building inside him, and it took all of his strength to resist the urge to strangle one of them.

"He is unstuck, lost," Colonel Tanya Ward from her command chair.

"Yes, I'm lost!" Sheppard said looking at Ward, 'answers at last?' He wondered, "we're all lost!" He threw his hands up in exasperation. "We're in the wrong time and the wrong place! Can you help us? Can you fix what went wrong?" He asked looking at each in turn, hopefully he could get something out of this.

"We could…" the Weir figure said, in the same annoyingly neutral tone as all the others... although Sheppard could detect a hint of hesitation in her voice.

"We cannot interfere," the Ronon figure said, reminding Sheppard of the Ancients and their non-interference philosophy. Which had caused untold suffering in both the Milky Way and Pegasus galaxies at the hands of the Goa'uld, Replicators, Ori, and Wraith, putting most ascended Ancients in the same category as politicians, who were fools about 99.9% of the time.

"He has great potential," the McKay figure said, which irritated Sheppard some more, mostly because he desperately wanted to have a clue what the hell was going on. Idly, he wondered if 'McKay' was also allergic to citrus so he could menace him. Sheppard thought, 'it probably wouldn't do anything, since he isn't McKay. The fact that I don't have a lemon on me doesn't help, either.'

"He is not the Sisko," A completely new character said. To Sheppard, she appeared to be an African-American female in her thirties, wearing lightly fitted clothing. Her dark hair was tied up in a bun and her piercing brown eyes seemed not so much see Sheppard as see straight through him.

"Who are you? Where are we?" asked Sheppard, figuring he could get an answer out of her, since she was the only one he had never seen before. Of course, when she refused to answer, he gave up trying to get a straight answer out of these people.

"Who are you?" the Teyla figure at the fire asked.

"John Sheppard, Lt. Colonel, United Stated Air Force." he said automatically somehow, he could tell that it wasn't the answer they wanted... or maybe they didn't know why he was here? Sheppard wondered, neither thought was comforting.

"He is unstuck, lost." Suddenly, he back on the Phoenix's bridge, where the Ward figure sat in the command chair, looking as bland as the rest of them.

"We could help them…" Now Sheppard was back with the McKay figure in Engineering. He wondered if he was the victim of some sort of cosmic joke, then decided that whoever or whatever was with him didn't have a sense of humour.

"He has great potential," the Weir figure at Atlantis said.

"He speaks the words, but does not understand them," said the Ronon figure on Sateda. Sheppard was beginning to wonder why they were acting like a broken record.

"We cannot interfere," the Teyla figure said.

"He is not the Sisko," the unknown woman defiantly declared. Sheppard got the impression that Captain Sisko or another Sisko was very important to these people.

"We could set them on the path..." the Ward figure said. Sheppard was finding it harder and harder to be surprised by the scenery changes.

"Or we could make things much worse," a new figure said. Sheppard turned and found himself in engineering; standing there proudly was Natalya, the alien that had tried to infiltrate the Phoenix's crew. Now, though, her hair was pulled up and she was wearing a flowing light and dark purple dress, not the black uniform she had on before.

"You!" Sheppard shouted accusingly, before heading towards her. At that moment, everything went black; in the background, he could hear the Weir character add one last "He has great potential" before his eyes flickered open.

The pain was almost unbearable, drowning out his senses, but Sheppard was dimly aware that he was lying on his back in the Phoenix's engineering section with a one handed blade stuck in his torso.

"McKay to Ward! We need a medical team to engineering now!" There was a brief pause then McKay again "if I don't get a team soon Colonel Sheppard could be dead." Rodney screamed; strangely, he still sounded a bit far off, almost like he was in another room.

Ronon fired two blasts from his pistol into something Sheppard couldn't see, were they still under attack? Everything didn't seem to be as loud as it should be, Sheppard realized, but he couldn't think through the fog that was engulfing his mind. "John! Can you hear me? It's going to be fine... stay with us, John!" He could hear and see Teyla, but the pain prevented him from responding to her. A strange sound came from somewhere in the room; Sheppard saw another man, one he recognised from the Defiant, but he couldn't remember the man's name. The man tapped the badge on his chest as he pulled out some sort of scanner. The man waved a small cylinder over Sheppard, causing the scanner to franticly beep.

"Bashir to Ops, medical emergency! Two to beam directly to infirmary!" Sheppard felt a strange tingling sensation overwhelm him, right before everything went black once more.


	12. Chapter 12

Twelve

The Defiant arrived at the other-side of the wormhole just ahead of the Phoenix Ward was surprised as her ship emerged back into normal space. Ahead of them was a space station. Unlike the Defiant this station was massive nearly two thousand meters wide and made up of three rings. Attached to the outermost ring there were three pylons that extended up and below the rings at equal intervals around the space station. In complete contrast the the Defiant's grey hull the space station was a dark brown in colour and looked completely alien. "We're not in Kansas any more" Ward whispered stepping up from her chair looking at the space station around the bridge crewmen had forgotten the Phoenix was missing from its home and time but now they were full of wonderment.

"McKay to Ward! We need a medical team in engineering now!" McKay's voice broke the moment snapping them all into reality "if I don't get a team soon Colonel Sheppard could be dead." He added moments later.

"Ward crossed the bridge to her command chair "Bridge to Medical, we need a team to engineering!"

"Medical, tell them to do what they can we're dealing with multiple patients already." Someone answered Ward couldn't allow Sheppard to die not now toggling the controls on her console.

"Major Hayden drop the shields" she ordered seeing his reaction "do it now" she said pressing the transmit code "Phoenix to Defiant this is Colonel Ward we have multiple injured crewmen requesting assistance of medical personnel."

"Colonel this is Captain Sisko we will begin deploying teams as soon as you give us coordinates." The Defiant's commander responded immediately moments later four figures appeared on the Phoenix bridge two wore dark uniforms with blue under shirts while two others had wrinkled noses like Major Kira and wore the same red uniforms.

"Multiple new contacts detected on several decks." Hayden responded looking at the controls "a mix of humans and non-human." He reported as the Defiant medical team deployed throughout the vessel.

Deep within the Phoenix Dr Julian Bashir and three appeared on board the Phoenix immediately he was struck by the stark nature of the ship it was even more basic than the Defiant with a gunmetal finish over just about everything. The consoles looked like switches instead of touch screen technology. His attention was then taken in by the female member of Sheppard's team, Teyla he remembered her name and her beauty "John! Can you hear me? It's going to be fine... stay with us!" She was bent over Colonel John Sheppard who appeared to have been stabbed by a nasty looking jagged blade with serrated edges on both sides. Kneeling down beside them Bashir pulled out his portable scanner scanning over the fallen man even as he tapped his combadge "Bashir to Ops, medical emergency! Two to beam directly to infirmary." He said looking down at the Colonel just as he gave in to unconsciousness.

Left alone in the engineering deck Sheppard's team glanced at each other and the remaining Starfleet personnel left behind by Bashir each carried a large rifle of some type. "How many is left?" Ronon demanded looking at McKay.

"Half a dozen" he said "they are surrounded by security personnel." He hastily added as Ronon led two of the Starfleet officers out.

"Stay here, guard her" Ronon said running into the corridor. Even surrounded the Jem'Hadar were dangerous energy blasts from their weapons filled the air as Ronon approached. Leaning out from a bulkhead Ronon snapped off a pair of shots with his pulse pistol clipping one of his targets. One of the Starfleet officers glanced out looking at the Jem'Hadar leaning back in for a moment he glanced at his companions who nodded their agreement within a couple of seconds all three stepped out firing their weapons sending pulse blasts of their own down the corridor taking out two of the Jem'Hadar. As P90 fire took down another Dominion Warrior Ronon stepped out firing his pulse pistol taking out another as the Starfleet officers took out another leaving one alien warrior left. "Surrender now!" Ronon shouted the Jem'Hadar threw down his own rifle weapon but Ronon could tell he was in no mood for a surrender instead he began to run down the corridor at the big Setedan warrior drawing a bladed weapon the same as the one that had been stabbed into Sheppard's chest. "Hold your fire" Ronon ordered not caring these men were not of the SGC or USAF. Tossing his pistol down Ronon drew out his own straight blade screaming a challenge as he ran towards his enemy.

In the centre of the corridor the two met their blades clashing Ronon screamed at the alien warrior parrying his strike as the warrior attempted to strike at him again Ronon knocked away the strike and realized the Jem'Hadar warrior was not a fighter with bladed weapons. Parrying two more attacks Ronon leaned in and punched his opponent in the face "Com'on!" He shouted angrily the Jem'Hadar screamed back striking out at Ronon with his blade again the warrior made the mistake of striking at Ronon aiming for his blade he made sure that the warrior did not live to make the mistake a third time. Ducking out of the way of the blade he sliced the blade across the Jem'Hadar's chest drawing the blade rapidly swinging it striking at the back of the alien's neck striking him down. Staring down at the downed warrior Ronon calmly placed back his blade "now you're done" he said stalking off past the stunned Starfleet officers.

A couple of hours later the Phoenix had been docked at one of Deep Space Nine's lower pylons Captain Sisko had informed Colonel Ward that they would try to keep the majority of the station's traffic away from the Phoenix during their stay. He'd also scheduled a staff meeting to discuss the situation for the next morning allowing the Phoenix crew to recover from what had happened. Twenty-two crewmen from the Phoenix including Lt. Colonel Sheppard were in Deep Space Nine's Infirmary with time before the staff meeting Teyla, Ronon and McKay chose to visit their team leader. Expecting to find John Sheppard in intensive care following his injury they were surprised to find Sheppard sitting up on a bed covered in a light blue sheet. Beside him was a pretty Blonde haired woman of the Bajoran species even without being able to hear them speak the team could tell that Sheppard was flirting embarrassing the younger woman.

"Hey Kirk behave yourself" McKay joked not even thinking about where he was Sheppard looked up at them and smiled even as the nurse he'd been chatting up moved off.

"Colonel are you all right?" Teyla asked looking at him concerned Sheppard just smirked.

"Good as new" he replied showing them a gap in his medical gown showing brand-new skin "their medical care is amazing."

"And you just happen to find a pretty nurse typical" McKay said "you know they probably got most of their ideas from you!" He said in a hushed voice "these people still haven't told us everything." Rodney said looking around nervously.

"You are never going to believe just how open they are" Sheppard said leaning over the the bed stand where one of the Starfleet's hand-held computers pressing the screen once to activate it before turning it towards the other three members of his team. The image showed a young man with tanned skin and short brown hair wearing a yellow uniform shirt.

"Kirk..." McKay said almost cursing the name.

"He doesn't look anything like you?" Ronon said interrupting the Doctor confused at McKay's references relating Sheppard to the man.

"It's his actions not his looks..." McKay began to explain before ignoring the big man turning back to Sheppard "did you get that out of a media gallery under fiction?" He asked ludicrously.

"There's a whole media gallery and a media one" Sheppard said "but this particular one is from the history section." Sheppard said "Starfleet's history Captain James T. Kirk commander of the USS Enterprise, its history Rodney" he said leaning forward "all of these people's history it's all true! Kirk is, was, a real person." McKay turned away from them for a moment looking out of the Infirmary's main doors looking onto the promenade seeing the aliens move about their business.

"Time travel" McKay finally said as if coming up with the idea for the first time. Already Captain Sisko had told them the date they all knew this wasn't their time.

"We know that already Rodney" Teyla stated irritated by Rodney's grandstanding over something they all knew already.

"No" he said spinning around looking at Sheppard "the creator of 'Star Trek' was a time-traveller" he said smiling broadly raising his hands "he travelled back in time and told Kirk's story in our time as a television series." Rodney explained.

"One way to make your living" Sheppard muttered "how does that little revelation help us?"

"If it worked once it has to work again" McKay said raising his hands "we find out how, and we can go home" he revealed bring a smile to Sheppard's face and a confident smirk to both Ronon's and Teyla's face finally they had a lead out of this mess.


	13. Chapter 13

Sorry for the delay I've been busy with some other projects and with life but here's the next bit. I hope you enjoy.

Thirteen

The next morning both crews met on board Deep Space Nine within the station's Ward Room a large room with many windows looking out over the station's upper area. Doctor Julian Bashir began with the briefing he informed everyone of the Phoenix's twenty-eight crewmen who had been hospitalized in Deep Space Nine's infirmary twenty-three had been released, including Colonel Sheppard, and the last three would be released within the next couple of days. Sitting quietly Tanya Ward listened to the young Doctor's pride as he informed the crews of the recovering patients he did not mention the thirteen members of the Phoenix's crew who had been beyond saving, even by Starfleet's impressive medical technology.

"Thank you, Doctor" Sisko said quietly unlike the others in the room Sisko had remained standing however he was standing over anyone or being intimidating in any way. Tanya had been tempted to raise to her own feet however she'd decided it would be better to allow Sisko to control this arena, this was his playground after all. "Major Kira, I'd like you to become creative with our docking schedule..."

"Sir?" The Bajoran asked

"With the Phoenix at Lower Pylon Three I'd like you to route all other traffic to the Upper Pylons or the Docking Ring." Sisko explained "there is going to be attention given towards the Phoenix, I would like to reduce it as best we can."

"That's going to cause hell with our docking schedule" Kira explained "we could cause delays that will effect station operations for months." She pointed out Ward was surprised that the fiery woman she had seen before was now acting like an administrator. Sisko didn't look too impressed but it wasn't at what Kira had said, more at the implications of what she had said.

"What if we route Starfleet and Bajoran traffic to the lower Pylons but not others?" Sisko suggested

"We'll work around it" Kira said glancing at Ward nodding slightly.

"Constable, I want you to ensure our security around Lower Pylon Three is secure." Sisko ordered the strange looking security chief nodded his agreement. Sisko had informed Ward that he was a member of the "Changeling" race which ran the Dominion but that he stood apart from the others of his race. "Dax, any idea how the Phoenix arrived here?" He asked turning to his science officer.

"We have a theory" Dax said quietly touching a couple of controls on the table activating the screen at the end of the table the image displayed was of what looked like a lop-sided oval made from some sort of entirely smooth rock in front of it was a golden pedestal. It was similar to a Stargate but instead of a swirling vortex devoid of image it displayed a clear image of the other side. "This is the Guardian of Forever as encountered by the USS Enterprise commanded by Captain James T. Kirk in 2267." Dax explained McKay and Sheppard exchanged a glance which resulted in Sheppard shaking his head. If Dax had seen the minor interplay between the two she made no notice of it as she changed the screen "and this is an Iconian Gateway" she said the screen showed a gateway recessed into the wall unlike the previous one it looked like it had been constructed. "Both are capable of moving large amounts of people and supplies from one area to another instantly. The Guardian is able to transfer people and items to alternate realities."

"Are either readily available for use or study?" McKay asked obviously intrigued by the idea or use of either.

"Negative" Worf said "the Guardian of Forever has been under quarantine since its last use." He explained "there is a warning net around that world thicker than that around any planet in the entire Alpha Quadrant." He said "the last Iconian Gateway discovered was destroyed by this crew in the Gamma Quadrant after a rogue Jem'Hadar faction seized it and planned to use it to conduct military operations. Use of either is considered to be a severe threat to the Federation's security."

"So how does this help us? If I understand you correctly" Teyla said quietly "neither of these are capable of transporting an entire starship and neither of these are in active use?"

"That is correct" Dax said "however both also emit a distinct signature." She said quietly "I've been looking over the Defiant's sensor logs, searching for anything that comes close, so far I haven't discovered any signatures that match. With Colonel Ward's permission I'd like to take a look at the Phoenix's sensor logs to compare their readings."

"Our Asgard sensor arrays should have picked up quite a bit" Ward admitted "Doctor McKay and I can assist you, Commander." She said McKay looked at the beautiful alien woman and nodded his agreement.

"Very good, Dax you are with Colonel Ward" Sisko said "Worf, I want you to keep an eye on chatter from our neighbours no doubt someone will notice the Phoenix's arrival we don't need it to bring too much attention."

"Yes, sir" The big Klingon warrior said.

"Chief, with Colonel Ward's permission I'd like you and the engineering teams to work with the Phoenix's engineering crews to repair any damage the ship has taken. I'd also like you to explore anyway we can help prepare the Phoenix for her next engagement."

"I can help coordinate the efforts of the teams, with Colonel Ward's permission" Sheppard suggested the Phoenix wasn't his ship but he'd help all he could to get the ship into fighting trim. He'd also like to keep an eye on the Deep Space Nine Chief his likeness to Commander Cowen was too great, and he'd like to have a look at some of the technology of the future.

"That would be appreciated, Colonel" Chief O'Brien said "perhaps you can show me one of those fighters you have at the same time?" He suggested O'Brien could tell the Colonel was suspicious about him following their first encounter but he was willing to try and mend some bridges if Sheppard was.

"I think that could be arranged." Sheppard said with a smirk.

"Very good, I want regular updates other than that we're done here people." Sisko said the others moved out slowly leaving Captain Sisko alone in the room with Colonel Ward.

"You really don't know how to get us home?" She said quietly the true realization of what was happening hitting her.

"No" Sisko admitted "as things stand at the moment Dax has a theory. We will do everything in our power to help you and your crew Colonel, you have my word on that" he said she could tell this was a man who said what he meant not what he wanted but what he could and would do. "Unfortunately there is only so much that we can do. You and your crew may need to consider what happens if you are stuck here?"

"We are three hundred years out of date Captain, even if Starfleet accepted us I'm not sure if my crew or my ship would be much use." She pointed out "your Defiant is as effective, or more effective, than the Phoenix and considering the technology and capabilities that would have been used to create this station" she said glancing around "I'd say one more ship would not make all that amount of difference." She pointed out.

"One more ship and one more crew can always make a difference" Sisko said smiling broadly "as my father says 'you can bring the best ingredients to the table but it is how you use them that makes the difference.' Your ship might be out of time and out of place but you are a starship commander I am sure you have seen places that your technology has an advantage over ours" he said, he certainly had seen two or three areas where the Phoenix had impressed him. "Your people each bring different experiences to the table, far different than those Starfleet has become accustomed to, that could be a lot more useful than a single ship.

"Perhaps" Ward admitted the idea of completing her original mission taking the Phoenix to the Pegasus Galaxy had a certain appeal "or perhaps we would be better finding our own way?" She said quietly "would your Starfleet oppose us if we chose to leave?"

"As things stand at the moment Starfleet Command has said that Deep Space Nine has authority over the Bajoran sector" Sisko said he had spoken with command nearly as soon as the Defiant had returned through the Wormhole. "Until that changes it means that I have the last say on the Phoenix's case" he confirmed "I would caution you however that going it alone may be tempting now but in six months or a year it may feel very lonely." Sisko said turning to look out the window more than once he had thought about what would happen if the Defiant had become stuck in the Gamma Quadrant if the wormhole failed to open. It wasn't something he relished, the Phoenix was about twice the length of the Defiant, it had a slightly bigger crew but from what he had heard was no more comfortable than the small vessel the idea of being stuck in space with only the corridors of a small ship sent shivers down his spine.

"Hopefully it won't come to that I'm sure that Dax is an able scientist and will find a solution" she said raising from her chair to join him at the windows.

"She's the best" Sisko said turning to face Ward a wide smile on his face.

Elsewhere Colonel Sheppard had taken Cheif O'Brien on board the Phoenix. Once the Chief had detailed several engineering teams to the Phoenix's crew as extra bodies Sheppard had taken O'Brien to one of the Hanger bays. Along one wall were six F-302 fighter craft "Impressive" O'Brien said quietly walking around the craft "if a little antiquated." He said reaching out to touch the cannon under the nose.

"Antiquated?" Sheppard said annoyed "that's a state of the art weapon system!" He pointed out seeing a smirk on the Chief's face Sheppard knew that the Chief was testing his temperament "that fighter ran rings around the Dominion ships and could do the same to your Defiant or this station."

"And a single hit from any of our weapons systems would cut it in half limiting how useful it is in a fight." O'Brien said continuing to walk around the ship "it's just a shame she couldn't carry a shield generator and a couple of torpedoes." O'Brien said an idea twinkling in his mind.

"A shield generator that would be the size of this ship?" Sheppard suggested "and torpedoes?" He asked he guessed they were like the F-302's missiles but more destructive, possibly like the Defiant's projectile weapons.

Some time later they were both back on board the space station near one of the station's many docking bays. During their walk her O'Brien had explained some of his ideas while Sheppard had been surprised by all the aliens he had seen "there's actually only about 80-100 Starfleet personnel on the station at any given time" O'Brien was explaining "most of them do double duty as Defiant crew in addition to their station duties. The rest of the work is taken up by members of the Bajoran militia they run the station as much as we do."

"And all the other aliens?"

"Civilians mostly many are from Federation worlds, others from nearby neutral systems or from trading alliances such as the Ferengi." O'Brien explained as he reached the docking system punching in his authorization code. The docking bay door rolled out of the way allowing them access "we get all sorts through here Colonel, it's one of the reasons the Phoenix will probably be safe enough at least for the short term." He said as the stepped into the bay "now you have a fighter I have a Runabout" O'Brien said stepping into the small ship Sheppard followed inside he found a compact starship with multiple control consoles and a rear compartment. O'Brien sat down on one of the two forward chairs allowing Sheppard to sit on the other, the chairs were comfortable more so than any of bridge chairs on board the Phoenix. "Rio Grande to Ops, requesting clearance to launch." O'Brien said touching a control in front of him. Moments later the doors above small ship opened up revealing open space O'Brien touched a couple more controls and the launch pad the Runabout was on began to raise lifting the ship out of the bay into space. Within seconds of the ship clearing the bay it was airborne and O'Brien had only touched a couple more controls everything seemed very automatic, with no real need for a pilot.

"Seems like you're happy to let the computer do all the work?" Sheppard wondered although O'Brien had his hands on the controls the computers seemed to be doing all the work.

"Sometimes an easy life is preferred" O'Brien admitted as the Runabout passed the docking ring bringing the Phoenix into view through the forward windows "and sometimes it's not" the engineer said tapping a couple more controls putting the ship onto manual fight. O'Brien's fingers ran over the touch controls rapidly as he brought the Runabout under manual controls bringing it down alongside the Phoenix expertly piloting the craft alongside the larger United States Airforce craft. O'Brien touched a couple of controls again putting the ship on automatic pilot "at least in this mode we can drink coffee while we work" O'Brien said raising from his chair Sheppard pretended to follow the Chief's movements but was really more interested in looking over the Runabout's controls.

"So you really think we can replicate some of this ship's capabilities on the F-302s?" Sheppard asked as O'Brien returned with two mugs of steaming coffee. He'd been gone for moments but the coffee was boiling hot and smelled like it had been brewed perfectly.

"Perhaps not exactly like this ship." O'Brien admitted "but we could perhaps fit a short term shield array to it, a couple of micro torpedoes under the wings and maybe a single phaser cannon at least give them a little punch when its needed." He suggested as Sheppard took a sip of the coffee, it was as perfect as he'd thought.

"Don't let McKay see this ship he'll want one." He joked marvelling at the technology available to these people. Any fears he'd had that O'Brien was actually Cowen were gone the Genii for all their wants and boasts could never come up with something like this. Looking out the runabout window he could see the Phoenix, which was an impressive ship in its own right, being completely overshadowed by the massive space station above it. Out of the corner of his eye he saw three flashes of light above the station as three small craft flashed out of warp near the station. Each had a green hull that was small, maybe a maximum of one hundred metres long, they had a rounded forward section connected to a more bulky main body by a short 'neck.' From the main body sweeping wings descended ending with nasty looking weapons cannons. "Uninvited guests?" Sheppard asked O'Brien shook his head.

"Worse, Klingons, we'd better get back on board the station." He said tapping a few controls that brought the Runabout back towards the station's landing pad. The three Klingon vessels kept their distance not approaching the station they looked menacing despite their small size Sheppard wondered what sort of communications was going on between Operations and the ships. Hopefully he'd get some answered he thought as the Runabout descended into the Station's landing bay.


End file.
